Legend of the Digidestined: Book One
by Blitzkrieg
Summary: Adventures on File Island" A totally re-imagined version of Digimon's start: new characters, new plots, new ideas, new everything! ...except for the parts that AREN'T new, of course (chapter 12 up!)
1. Into The Breach

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book One  
  
Chapter one  
  
"Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour! Step right this way...."  
  
Roll up!  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up!  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (To make a reservation)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
The Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away!  
  
Waiting to take you away!  
  
Roll up!  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up!  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (They've got everything you need)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (satisfaction guaranteed)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
The Magical Mystery Tour is hoping to take you away!  
  
Hoping to take you away!  
  
Aaaaah... The Magical Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up!  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (I've got an invitation)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
Roll up! (To make a reservation)  
  
Roll up for the Mystery Tour!  
  
The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away!  
  
Coming to take you away...  
  
The Magical Mystery tour is dying to take you away!  
  
Dying to take you away,  
  
Take you today!  
  
"Magical Mystery Tour"  
  
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney  
  
from Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles  
  
Chapter one:  
  
Into the breach  
  
Green Leaf Summer Camp was a reasonably nice place. Not too fancy or any thing, but  
  
nice. The camp was wedged between several mountains and surrounded by forest. it was as close  
  
to the middle of nowhere as you could get conveniently. There were several large ponds to play in  
  
and around, a nice cool canteen with a small army of Ping-Pong tables, and plenty of other things  
  
ideally suited for goofing off. Which was good, sense that was really all they had to do (Green  
  
Leaf was notorious for it's poorly planed attempts at organized sport). Despite it's flaws, Green  
  
Leaf was well regarded as a good place for kids to have fun and make friends.  
  
It is with several of these kids, having fun and making friends at the moment, that this  
  
story concerns it self. Seven ordinary (well, not ordinary, just unremarkable) kids who all staying  
  
in the same cabin. Excluding the counselor, Mr Crosby, who spent most of his time hanging out at  
  
the Canteen; the inhabitants are:  
  
Tai Kamiya: An active, outspoken twelve year old, Tai's not a guy you forget too quick  
  
after you meet him. This probably has a good bit to do with his shaggy mess of brown hair. Let  
  
down, it would easily hit his shoulders, but he holds it up out of his face with a headband or ski  
  
goggles, which ever is at hand. Please note: he doesn't hold it behind his ears or anything normal  
  
like that, he puts his hair UP THROUGH the headband (or goggles). A ludicrous arrangement that  
  
makes him look more like a palm tree than a person. A real sports buff, Tai enjoys just about  
  
anything that's fast; there is little he hates more than waiting (he enjoys sleeping a great deal,  
  
though).  
  
Matt Taylor: A cool, quiet, collected thirteen year old, Matt's the kind of guy who you'd  
  
think would crack his face if he tried to show any emotion. He's got bright blond hair over his ears  
  
that he puts way too much effort into taking care of. He's far less picky about his clothes: black  
  
jeans or leather pants, sleeve-less shirts, and a raggedy biker jacket (weather permitting). Matt  
  
seems to have all the makings of a juvenile delinquent, but he's not really a bad kid, just not an  
  
especially good one. He's the kind of guy who, for the most part, will just let life happen as long  
  
as he can get through it.  
  
Sora Bloomfield: If you've known Sora for more than two minutes, she'll treat you better  
  
than most people treat there best friend. Though only twelve, Sora's a mature, intelligent, and  
  
kindhearted individual. She's known Tai for several years and is probably the only person who  
  
can figure him out. Like Tai, Sora's a sports buff, but she's not as finatical about it as he is. In  
  
fact, she's not very finatical about anything; though her interests cover practically everything.  
  
Though not a tomboy, She's in no way, shape, or form a girly-girl. The deepest she dives into the  
  
world of fashion is the knitted cap she hides her sandy blond hair under. All and all, Sora's the  
  
most well balanced person We'll be seeing in this story for a while.  
  
Izzy Hondo: I couldn't tell you why Izzy came to this camp in the first place, he'd be  
  
perfectly content to just sit at home and surf the net. A short eleven year old with hair like an  
  
electrified tribble (you Trekkers out there know what I mean) and the brute strength of a gnat, Izzy  
  
is the original computer geek. He's probably the smartest person alive and thinks of his computer  
  
as his best friend. Not that he's rude or aloft or anything like that; he's actually quite polite, just not  
  
too out going.  
  
Mimi McVie: A Thirteen year old living Barbie doll, I couldn't tell you why Mimi came to  
  
camp ether. This ultraspoiled teenybopper freaks out when she has to wear the same socks two  
  
days in a row. She brought a portable generator to camp to run all her hair fixing equipment (by the  
  
way her hair is Amber, "Not blond, not orange, but AMBER! And don't you for get it!") and  
  
rented a fleet of U-haul trucks to bring all her clothes. She even brought her small zoo of stuffed  
  
animals. Sexist stereotype? You said it! Despite being a whiner of apocalyptic proportions when  
  
she's ticked off, Mimi can actually be cheerful to the degree of bubbly when things meet her  
  
aproval.  
  
Joe Kido: Can you say WUSS? Joe can! He's the biggest wimp this side of....well, he's  
  
the biggest period. This thirteen year old string bean would panic if he was chased by a horse fly.  
  
Joe is afraid of everything: hights, the dark, water, dogs, cats, exercise (the only physical effort he  
  
will perform is lugging around his duffel bag, which you could fit Europe in), you name it. To  
  
make maters worse, for him at least, Joe looks more like a nerd than Bill Gates. Needless to say,  
  
he's not that most popular person here.  
  
T.K. Takaishi: Matt's six year old little brother T.K. is a bubbly little ray of sunshine (?)  
  
that everybody at camp likes. He's a little on the hyper side and spends way too much time running  
  
around out side or playing Pokemon (like all goodhearted children). Although they're nothing alike  
  
personality wise, T.K. looks just like a miniature version of Matt except with messier hair. He  
  
really looks up to Matt and wants to be just like him when he grows up.  
  
Well, enough of that, on with the story....  
  
The day started like most other days at Green Leaf (sunny, a slight breeze, all that good  
  
stuff) and the kids were enjoying it to the fullest, except for Izzy who was surfing the net in the  
  
cabin. T.K. was climbing every tree he could find, Sora was cloud gazing, Mimi was picking  
  
flowers by the pond (only the ones that matched her shirt of course), Joe was swatting at the army  
  
of mosquitoes that held the camp captive around this time of year, Matt had found a nice dark place  
  
to sulk, and Tai was enjoying a moss covered hill with a tree on it the way God intended moss  
  
covered hills with trees on them to be enjoyed: he was sleeping on it. Or at least he was sleeping  
  
until he felt something wet on his forehead.  
  
"Oh, great!" he thought "Don't tell me I went to sleep  
  
right under a bird.". Fortunately, he checked and it was just a drop of water. Then he noticed that  
  
there were several other wet spots on him. Tai ran out from under the tree to see what was going  
  
on, but couldn't believe what he saw.  
  
It was snowing.  
  
Obviously, the first thing that interred Tai's mind was "GET INSIDE!" so inside he got. Or, at least, he tried. By the time he was halfway to the cabin, Tai could hardly see two feet in front of him. Still, he made it to the cabin relatively unscathed. "Relatively" in the sense that, just before he got there, he walked straight into a low hanging branch and scratched his face up. Fortunately (I suppose) he was too numb from the cold to hurt.  
  
"MAN! It's something else out there!" Tai panted as he burst through the door and fell onto the  
  
cabin floor. Sora, Mimi, Joe, and T.K. were all at the window watching the storm (why, I have no  
  
idea; there was nothing to see but solid white). Matt, as usual, was sulking, this time in the corner  
  
of the cabin, and Izzy, also as usual, was typing away at his computer.  
  
Tai tried valiantly to shake the thick coat of snow out of his hair when he noticed that his head band was missing. "Damn" he though "That was my last one, too." Rummaging through his duffel bag brought forth only a pair of ski goggles he'd absent mindedly tossed in while he'd been packing. With his makeshift headband in place Tai took a moment to survey the silent cabin.  
  
"Hey Izzy, how are things in cyberspace?" Tai asked, wondering if Izzy had even noticed  
  
the snow at all.  
  
"Not very well, I'm afraid." Izzy muttered, preoccupied with his work. "I was hoping I  
  
could get on the national weather service web site and get some information on this unusual  
  
weather system, but my internet connection seems to have gone dead."  
  
"Maybe it can't get through the snow." pondered Sora from the window.  
  
"Snow's never blocked my wireless connection before." Izzy muttered more to himself  
  
that for any one else to hear.  
  
"Snow's never fallen in the middle of summer before either." Matt observed from his little  
  
corner.  
  
Mimi, who hadn't been paying a bit of attention to the computer banter whined "I hope Mr  
  
Crosby's all right!"  
  
"Oh, don't worry, he's probably still down at the canteen." Tai said while he brushed the  
  
last bit of snow off his shoes.  
  
"I hope he didn't try to get back to the cabin when the snow started. If he did he's  
  
probably a snowman by now." said Joe cynically.  
  
"Thanks for that lovely picture, Joe" Sora moaned while Mimi leaped zealously on the  
  
opportunity to panic.  
  
"DO YOU REALLY THINK SO?!?!?" she shouted.  
  
Tai covered his ears and shouted back "Hey, we're right here! You don't need to scream!"  
  
"Hey, I think the snow is slowing down!...No, no it's not. Never mind." said T.K., who  
  
hadn't been paying attention to anything but the storm.  
  
Sora giggled and ran her had through T.K.'s messy hair "It's probably not going to slow  
  
down for a while, and I think it'll be too dark too see by then."  
  
"It's getting pretty dark now." Tai noticed. The snow may have had something to do with  
  
it but it did seem to be getting late. The clock in the cabin hadn't work in years , but Tai knew it  
  
had been after six when he zoned out under the tree, and he'd been there a while.  
  
"If you ask me" said Matt, who was already climbing up to his bunk, "we ought to just  
  
quit worrying and wait this thing out. Nothing's going to be happening for a while.". And with  
  
that, pulled the sheets over his head and konked out. Gradually every one else decided that was a  
  
good idea and did the same.  
  
Sleep didn't come easy. The wind kept howling and pounding at the cabin and the fact that  
  
the cabin's insulation age was older than every one in there put together didn't help. Eventually,  
  
however, every one managed to drift off and were awakened the next morning by the blinding light  
  
of the sun shining off the snow. Obviously the first thing on every one's mind was to get out in the  
  
snow. Of the group, only Matt, Mimi, and Joe had jackets with them (Joe had his out of his need  
  
to prepare for any circumstance, Mimi just brought every thing she had, and Matt...well he brings  
  
his jacket every place) but that didn't stop the rest from investigating the now unrecognizable  
  
camp.  
  
"Hey, let's build a snow man!" shouted T.K.  
  
"I dunno. I'm a little suspicious of snow that falls in seventy degree weather." said Joe,  
  
lugging his duffel bag through the knee deep snow.  
  
"Well it sure isn't seventy any more, I'm freezing!" complained Sora, rubbing her bare  
  
arms.  
  
From behind her Mimi piped up "Hey, you can wear one of my parkas, Sora! Why, I've  
  
got one that'll match your cap perfectly! You'll help me get my suit case out right?"  
  
"Sure!" said an extremely grateful Sora "Which one is it?"  
  
"Oh, you know." called Mimi from the door "The big pink one!"  
  
"Oh, that really narrows things down." laughed Tai.  
  
T.K., who had all ready forgotten about the snowman, called over to Izzy "Hey, you  
  
wanna have a snowball fight?" but Izzy didn't seem to notice. "Hey, Izzy!" T.K. called louder, but  
  
Izzy still didn't respond, he was just staring up at the sky. Having heard the commotion, Tai ran  
  
over, "Hey what's the matter?"  
  
"That's what." said Izzy, pointing at a small, bright speck of light in the sky, "Call me  
  
crazy, but I don't think there are supposed to be stars out at six in the morning."  
  
Tai pulled out the mini telescope he'd bought the day before to take a closer look while  
  
every one else ran over to find out what this latest bizarre occurrence was.  
  
"Hey, is that a star?"  
  
"Don't be silly. You can't see stars out this late...er...I mean early."  
  
"Yeah, and it can't snow in the middle of summer ether."  
  
"Do you mind?" Izzy blurted out as he started typing on his laptop "I'm trying to work  
  
here......Hmmm....maybe it's a supernova?"  
  
"I dunno" said Tai, putting his telescope back in his pocket "I've never heard of a green  
  
supernova before."  
  
"Really? It's green?" said a surprised Izzy, apparently to busy thinking about the thing to  
  
notice it's color.  
  
Back at the cabin Sora, who, with Mimi, had been valiantly attempting with to wedge  
  
Mimi's huge suit case through the door, noticed the gang collecting outside and ran over to see  
  
why.  
  
"Hey, come on! Aren't you gonna help me?" whined Mimi.  
  
"Hey, what's going on?" Sora asked.  
  
"We're lookin' at a star or something!" replied T.K.  
  
"A green star?"  
  
"I don't think this is a star we're dealing with." said Izzy, lost in thought.  
  
"I'm almost afraid to ask," gulped Joe "but what makes you say that?"  
  
"Simple," replied Izzy "it's getting bigger."  
  
And sure enough, the light that had started out as a little speck was now almost as big as  
  
the sun and still growing. And it was now obvious that it couldn't possibly be a star. The green  
  
they had though was all over it was, in fact, just a glowing haze around the sides. The main body  
  
of it seemed to be black, except it wasn't a body really. It was more like a hole. A big gaping rip in  
  
the sky. The black inside was full of hazy streams of light snaking there way around each other.  
  
The whole thing had an eerie beauty to it, but none of them were exactly in the state of mind to  
  
enjoy it then.  
  
"WHOA! WHAT IS THAT THING?!?!" screamed Mimi, lugging her suit case behind  
  
her.  
  
"I don't know, and I don't think I wanna find out!" said Tai anxiously.  
  
"I really think that we ought to go down to the conference hall guys." said Matt, trying,  
  
without much success, to cover up the fact that he was scared out of his wits.  
  
"You have my complete, total, and whole hearted agreement, Matt" cried Joe, quite happy  
  
to make his fear known to every one.  
  
The words were barely out of Joe's mouth when a blinding white flash erupted from the  
  
thing accompanied by a thunderous, phasing roar. Immediate after, almost at the same time  
  
actually, a blistering wave of heat washed over them, knocking every one to the ground. Then the  
  
light around them changed, while no less bright, it was redder. Looking, or at least trying to look,  
  
into the shinning hole in the sky reviled the source of the new light. They were seven objects that  
  
can be best, though not very accurately, described as metallic fireballs. The flamed, moved, and in  
  
almost all respects looked like fire, but they had a hard, solid quality to them. Not that any of them  
  
cared about what they were made of, they were far more interested in were headed. They were  
  
headed straight for them. As you can imagine, the first and only thing that came into there minds  
  
was to run. Every one fumbled through the increasingly bright light and, somehow, the all  
  
managed to get behind the cabin in very little time. Unfortunately, that made very little difference to  
  
the fire balls; they just flew over there heads, stopped, turned around, and flew straight at them  
  
again. The kids braced themselves for the sudden impact.....  
  
...and then the things vanished.  
  
Although no one had there eyes open, they all knew that the heat and the bright light had vanished  
  
as well. As they opened there eyes to see what had happened (most of them had been terrified  
  
enough to have the absurd notion that they needed to look to see if they were dead or not) they saw  
  
no sign of the fireball things or the bright light. There was nothing that suggested that anything odd  
  
had happened at all. The only thing out of place was a strange, quiet, buzzing sound. It took a few  
  
moments for anyone to notice it, but it didn't take long for them to find out where it was coming  
  
from. Somehow, without any of them knowing, some sort of devices had been placed in each of  
  
there hands.  
  
The things were somewhat oval shaped with notches on the top, bottom, left and right.  
  
They all were five inches across, and four inches top to bottom. The casing (or whatever) on them  
  
were made of a substance that no one could recognize: very hard, but not metallic. They all had a  
  
predominately dull silver look with two dark blue ovals on the right of what was probably the front  
  
and one circle on the left. In the center, surrounded a blue ring with some kind of writing on it,  
  
was a screen of some sort.  
  
For a few moments, there was total silence. then T.K. blurted out "Hey, what the heck is  
  
this thing?"  
  
"I don't know," said Tai, still a little shell shocked over all that had been happening "but  
  
I've got one too."  
  
"It would appear that we all have one." commented Izzy, gingerly examining his device "I  
  
believe they were delivered by those fireballs."  
  
"Couldn't they have just used UPS?" mumbled Mimi, trembling.  
  
"I wonder if they're some type of hand held computer system." Izzy wondered to himself,  
  
ignoring Mimi.  
  
"Mine kind of looks like my Game Boy." T.K. said, pulling his Game Boy out of his  
  
pocket to compare it to the strange device. "I wonder if you can play games on this too."  
  
"I don't think that these play video games, T.K." Sora said, looking over hers, "There's  
  
no place to plug anything in."  
  
"There's no infrared port either....." Izzy started, then a different thought crossed his  
  
mind. "I wonder what there buttons do."  
  
As Izzy started to press one of the buttons, Joe shouted "HEY! Just what do you think  
  
you're doing? We don't know anything about these things! That might be the self destruct button  
  
for all you know!". However Izzy went ahead and pressed the buttons anyway, with absolutely no  
  
effect. Satisfied that he was not blown up, Izzy commented "The buttons don't seem to have any  
  
function. There doesn't seem to be any way to operate these things."  
  
"Maybe they aren't buttons, the might just be decorations." offered Sora.  
  
"They feel like buttons to me." Said Tai as he pressed his. The button (or what ever it  
  
was) moved in with a click and rebounded when he let go. " And nobody puts buttons on things  
  
for no reason."  
  
While the others had been wondering over buttons, Matt was more interested in the thing  
  
that had, it seemed, threatened there live only a few moments ago (sense words don't move very  
  
fast, I should point out that barely a minute had passed sense the fireballs appeared). He ventured  
  
back around the cabin to see what the hole in the sky was up to. What he found was an  
  
unexpected, though not entirely unwelcome surprise. "Hey, guys! The thing in the sky's gone!"  
  
The others, so totally engrossed in the mysterious devices that they had momentarily  
  
forgot about what had just happened, all responded in unison: "WHAT?"  
  
"I said, that hole, or star, or whatever it was; it's gone! There's no trace of it!"  
  
The others all ran around front to the pile of back packs and duffel bags (and Mimi's suit  
  
case) that they had dropped out front when they ran behind the cabin. Sure enough, there was no  
  
sign of it. Someone uninformed would never have known anything was there in the first place.  
  
"Good riddance!" Signed Mimi as every one warily began to pick up any belongings they  
  
had left out side. They hadn't gotten very far before Izzy noticed a faint, but ominous rumbling  
  
beneath him. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don't think we're out of the woods yet!"  
  
As the others noticed the steadily increasing rumbling, Tai ran over to the bushes past the  
  
path to see what was going on.  
  
He found out.  
  
"HOLY CRAP!"  
  
"That's not good. That never means anything good." Said Joe, panicking  
  
"Trust me, it's not!" yelled Tai.  
  
Then what only can be described as a glowing, neon wave flew over the bushes and over  
  
took the kids. The had a sensation of floating for a moment, like being under water, then that  
  
feeling of floating turned into falling. The camp, the trees, the ground, every thing vanished and  
  
was replaced by ....something else. All they could tell was it was bright, it was loud (the roaring,  
  
phasing sound they had heard before), and they were falling into it. They couldn't tell for sure just  
  
how fast the were falling, as there was nothing around them to pass, but it seemed to them to be  
  
pretty fast. Below them (or in front of them, it was hard to tell) was a huge mass of color. There  
  
didn't seem to be any edges to the mass, but it did seem quite solid; and seeing as they were  
  
headed for it at extreme speed, this didn't sit well with the kids. Fortunately, the appearance of  
  
solidity was misleading: they passed right through without touching anything. Beyond the false  
  
wall of color, they fell into a new, chaotic area.  
  
This second place turned out to look quite a lot the inside of the hole in the sky. There  
  
wasn't much of a back ground, or any kind of end for that matter. The only things they could see  
  
were the shimmering streams of color they had seen before wrapping around them and stretching  
  
endlessly into the murky distance, bathing the whole expanse with a bizarre shine. They (the  
  
streams) didn't seem to be moving along like they had been in the hole, but that probably was due  
  
to the speed at which the kids were passing them. A speed that seemed to be increasing all the time.  
  
As they fell deeper and deeper into (or through) this place, the streams started getting brighter and  
  
more solid white. The continuous phasing sound began to get higher and shriller as well. Soon the  
  
sound has become almost inaudible, like a silent whistle, and the light out shone everything else.  
  
This light seemed different that the light that had come out of the hole in the sky earlier, however.  
  
It seemed softer, milkier. There was an almost tangible quality to it. Before too long, they realized  
  
that it seemed tangible because it was. They were surrounded, not by light, but some kind of milky  
  
white fluid; almost like a gel. In trying to reach forward and feel ahead, they found that some of the  
  
substance seemed to be forming a perimeter of sorts, almost like an egg shell, around each of  
  
them. Slowly, the shell became harder and more transparent. Looking through the cloudy walls  
  
around them, the kids found that they had once again moved to someplace else.  
  
The first thing they noticed was that they didn't seem to be falling any more. While they  
  
were definitely still moving at incredible speed, they didn't seem to be going strait down any more;  
  
instead they seemed to be shooting strait ahead. The new place they were in had a quality to it that  
  
caused it to resemble outer space. It very much resembled the previous area (in fact the two may  
  
actually have been one and the same) but wasn't quite the same. The streams of color were still  
  
present, but at quite a distance. from this far away, they seemed to form clouds that almost looked  
  
like nebulas, lending to the outer space feel. There weren't any stars that they could see, there was  
  
only the sea of clouds to light up the void. As they shot through, our intrepid (and terrified)  
  
adventurers realized that there was something in front of them: a planet. The planet seemed to  
  
resemble earth well enough, there seemed to be oceans and continents, but they didn't get much of  
  
a chance to look the place over because, at the speed they were going, they had barely noticed the  
  
planet before they were almost on top of it.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
As Tai slowly regained consciousness, the first thing that interred his mind was pain.  
  
Every inch of his body felt like.......well, there wasn't really anything to compare it too. A guy  
  
like Tai was a guy who was quite familiar with injury: cuts, bruises, broken bones, hemorrhages,  
  
you name it; but nothing even came close to the sensation that lingered through out his body. Every  
  
inch of his skin felt like the flow of blood had been cut off, he was dizzy to the point that he didn't  
  
know which way was up, his ears were ringing so bad that he couldn't hear a thing besides it. In  
  
short, Tai was a mess. He tried to open his eyes, but that proved to be a mistake. The light striking  
  
his eyes felt like knives being plunged into his head. Tai shut his eyes quickly and tried to raise his  
  
hand to his face to rub them, but his joints were stiff as boards and the weight of his own arm  
  
seemed to be a ton. He let his arm drop to the ground (which alerted him to the fact that he was, in  
  
fact, on the ground) and tried to figure out just what was going.  
  
How long had he been asleep?  
  
He'd taken a nap under that tree on the east trail. Had he been there all night? No, some would  
  
have seen him and woke him up. Tai tried to open his eyes again, but was greeted with the same  
  
assault on his worn out retinas. Once again he shut them and decided to try to feel his way around.  
  
With great effort, he started to slide his arm around and feel where he was.  
  
There was a lot of  
  
grass under him so he was definitely outside, but why had nobody woken Tai up? More  
  
importantly, how had he gotten in such bad shape? It's not like he'd never spent the night outside  
  
before. Slowly, Tai's arm made it's way up past his head. Sure enough, there was a tree there; but  
  
something was wrong. This didn't feel like the oak tree that he'd fallen asleep under. The bark was  
  
too smooth, too fine, too cold even. It almost felt metallic. Where the hell was he?  
  
"Where..."  
  
The star thing, the fireballs, that planet....  
  
Suddenly, like a bullet, the remembrance of what had happened shot through Tai mind.  
  
He wasn't at camp any more. That wave-whatever-it-was had took him.  
  
That planet...  
  
Was that were he was? Had he been swept up and dumped onto an alien planet?  
  
Abducted? That last choice of words was quite unfortunate as every sci-fi film he'd ever seen took  
  
the opportunity to jump to mind at it's mention. Still, Tai refused to let his fear get the best of him.  
  
Just get a hold of your self, Tai, he though to himself don't be a wuss now. Again he opened his  
  
eyes, this time intent on keeping them open. After several seconds of extreme pain, he began, with  
  
great difficulty, to see the sky. Then he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that he has nowhere  
  
near home.  
  
The sky wasn't blue.  
  
Well some of it was blue, but there were plenty of other colors mixed in with it. Although  
  
his vision slowly cleared, he could see that the colored streams that had been all around them  
  
earlier were still visible; making the sky look like a big, living finger painting. And, frankly, it  
  
creeped him out.  
  
Slowly, with quite a lot of crackeling and popping involved, Tai moved his head back  
  
enough to see the tree behind him. As with the "sky", the "tree" only seemed to be one in the  
  
loosest sense of the word. The outside was a glossy gray with veins of purple running through to  
  
it's bright blue leaves. The shape of the thing didn't help much ether. There were no branches at all  
  
until the top where they were almost innumerable. The whole thing looked less like a tree and more  
  
like a giant, colorful piece of broccoli.  
  
Now quite anxious to get anyplace other than where he was then, Tai started struggling to  
  
get up. As with any attempt at motion lately, he was greeted with a flood of pain through out his  
  
body. However, as he started to move, Tai became aware of something extremely unsettling:  
  
Something was on top of him; resting on his stomach.  
  
Tai froze for a moment as every horrible possibility of what it might be flooded his brain.  
  
Trying, with limited success, to shut the fear out, Tai slowly opened his eyes (he'd shut them  
  
while bracing for the pain of moving) and cautiously looked down at where he could feel the object  
  
resting on him.  
  
He was greeted by two big, round eyes.  
  
They belonged to some kind of animal it seemed. Small, about a foot or so across, it was  
  
mostly round and a very light red (almost pink). It didn't have any limbs, save two long  
  
antenna/ears, and the only things on it's face was a wide mouth and the two big eyes.  
  
Given the circumstances, Tai carefully weighed his options and settled on the only logical  
  
course of action:  
  
He panicked.  
  
And he panicked good.  
  
One of the wonderful things about pure terror is it makes you totally oblivious to anything  
  
else; so, without even noticing the pain that resulted, Tai quickly crawled backwards, head first,  
  
straight into the tree behind him (resulting in a pain he did notice). As he stopped to figure out that  
  
he'd hit the tree (it took several seconds) the pink thing hopped onto him again and began jumping  
  
on him. It was then that Tai noticed something interesting:  
  
The thing was smiling!  
  
Smiling and talking to him!  
  
The ringing in his ears had stopped a while ago but, as you can imagine, stopping and  
  
listening was the last thing on Tai's mind.  
  
"YES! YES! YES!!!!!! You ARE awake!!! YEEEESSSS!!!!!!!!!" it shouted. Then, it  
  
jumped off him and began to hop around in a circle.  
  
"YES!!!! Oh, YES!!!! Oh, man, you don't know how long I've been waiting for you  
  
Tai!"  
  
At the mention of his name, Tai was suddenly snapped out of his panic induced stupor.  
  
"Wha- what did you say?" he stuttered "How do you know my name?"  
  
"Well it's your name isn't it?" it giggled.  
  
"Uh...well...yeah, but-"  
  
"What are we doing worrying about names?" it interrupted, "What's important is you're  
  
here and I'm here; that means WE'RE here! We! Ha, ha; WE! boy that feels good to say!"  
  
Tai, becoming more and more confused with every word that came out of the thing's  
  
mouth, broke in "Whoa, whoa, HOLD IT!!! I'm getting lost here. Just what are you?"  
  
It looked puzzled for a moment, but then the big grin came back to it's face  
  
"Oh, that's  
  
right! You haven't had a formal introduction yet! Well, my name's Koromon!"  
  
"Koromon" Tai unconsciously muttered to himself "What's that mean, talking head?"  
  
"It means brave little warrior, thank you very much!" said Koromon with exaggerated  
  
indignance.  
  
"Uh, ok" mumbled Tai, not entirely comfortable with the idea of a strange creature with  
  
lots of teeth and a name that means "warrior" hanging around him "So, uh, what do you want with  
  
me?"  
  
"Hey, it's not what I want it's what we NEED. You and me are PARTNERS!" Koromon  
  
shouted gleefully.  
  
"Wha-partner?" Tai stammered.  
  
"That's what I said!"  
  
"I know that's what you said but what do you mean?"  
  
"Well what else can partner mean?" Koromon asked "You and me work together and help  
  
each other out."  
  
"No offense, but I don't think I need a pink ball of fluff to help me out." grunted Tai as he  
  
started to get up. Before he got too far, however, Koromon jumped on him again, knocking him  
  
back down.  
  
"Hey, you listen here, Tai," Koromon said, sounding serious for the first time "I don't  
  
think you understand what's going on here. In the Digiworld, you're going to need all the friends  
  
you can get." He stayed silent for a moment to let what he'd said sink in before adding "And here I  
  
am!" with a grin.  
  
Tai would have jumped on the mention of "Digiworld" and tried to find out where he was  
  
if his mind wasn't already on something else Koromon said.  
  
"Friends..."  
  
"OH NO!" Tai shouted, jumping up and sending Koromon pummeling to the ground "The  
  
others! I forgot all about them!" With that, Tai ran off in search of his comrades with Koromon in  
  
hot pursuit.  
  
"Hey Tai, wait up! Slow down! Hey, we don't all have legs you know. Come on!"  
  
To Be Continued... 


	2. Together Again

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book One  
  
Chapter 2  
  
What would you think if I sang out of tune  
  
Would you stand up and walk out on me?  
  
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song  
  
And I'll try not to sing out of key.  
  
I get by with a little help from my friends  
  
I get high with a little help from my friends  
  
Gonna with a little help from my friends  
  
What do I do when my love is away?  
  
(Does it worry you to be alone?)  
  
How do I feel by the end of the day?  
  
(Are you sad because you're on your own?)  
  
No, I get by with a little help from my friends  
  
Yes, I get high with a little help from my friends  
  
Gonna try with a little help from my friends  
  
(Do you need any body?)  
  
I need some body to love  
  
(Could it be any body?)  
  
I want somebody to love  
  
(Would you belive in a love at first sight?)  
  
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time  
  
(What do you see when you turn out the lights?)  
  
I can't tell you but I know it's mine  
  
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends  
  
Oh, I get high with a little help from my friends  
  
Gonna try with a little help from my friends  
  
(Do you need any body?)  
  
I need some body to love  
  
(Could it be any body?)  
  
I want somebody to love  
  
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends  
  
Oh, I get high with a little help from my friends  
  
Gonna try with a little help from my friends  
  
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends  
  
With a little help from my friends!  
  
"With A Little Help From My Friends"  
  
By John Lennon and Paul McCartney  
  
from Magical Mystery Tour by The Beatles  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Together again  
  
Leomon balanced effortlessly on the giant tree overlooking most of the forest. He hadn't  
  
seen the seven lights that he had been told fell from the sky; but he did hear them. He doubted that  
  
there was any one on this side of the island hadn't. What he did see was seven creatures scattered,  
  
unconscious, through out the forest. They didn't look like any Digimon that Leomon had ever  
  
seen. They didn't look like anything he'd ever seen period. Rather than attempt to wake them,  
  
Leomon decided that it would be wiser to wait and see what these creatures wanted.  
  
Were they friendly?  
  
Hostile?  
  
Or maybe...  
  
As he mussed to himself over the new arrivals' intentions, that thought flashed across his  
  
mind again. The same thought that came into his mind when he first heard about the new creatures:  
  
could they be the ones? Were these strangers the saviors he'd been looking for so long? "Stop", he  
  
thought to himself; the last thing he needed know was to get his hopes up. File Island was getting  
  
more dangerous by the day, he couldn't allow himself to be distracted. From his perch, Leomon  
  
saw that several of the creatures had awoken and were beginning to move deeper into the jungle.  
  
He leapt silently from the tree to follow them. Yes, he would watch the strangers. He would find  
  
out whether or not yet another danger had befallen File Island...  
  
Or if it's deliverance had finally arrived.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
"Really? You only see him once or twice a year?" Tsunomon remarked, more than a little  
  
surprised.  
  
"Yep," Matt sighed "Birthdays usually. I don't think Dad's seen T.K. sense he was three.  
  
Mom won't let him anywhere near the little guy."  
  
"But wouldn't T.K. want to see his father?" asked Tsunomon, thoroughly confused.  
  
This whole concept of "parents" was new to him, but he'd leaned enough from Matt to know that  
  
there was something fishy in what he was hearing.  
  
"Yea, but she just won't let him"  
  
"But why would she do that?" said Tsunomon, quite lost.  
  
"Why the hell does she do anything?" Matt growled to himself before explaining: "See,  
  
Mom has to have everything and have it her way. If anything looks like it will interfere with her  
  
running the show, BAM!" At that, he slammed his fist into his hand with a loud thwack to  
  
illustrate before continuing: "She's mad enough that I went of to live with Dad, so she's paranoid  
  
that he will too. And the thing is, she's probably right. I bet she'd even make me stay away from  
  
T.K. too, but then he'd definitely ditch her."  
  
"Gee, after being raised by someone most of his life, I'd think that he probably want to  
  
stay with that person." mussed Tsunomon.  
  
Stay with the old witch? I don't think so Matt thought to himself. He didn't say it though.  
  
Matt and Tsunomon had been walking through what at first seemed like a forest for some  
  
time now. However it was steadily looking less like a forest and more like a jungle. Everything  
  
about the place creaped Matt out. First there were the trees; the looked, for the most part, like  
  
ordinary trees, but the bark was this bizarre purple-ish blue. And the leaves were too green, almost  
  
neon green. What was worse was the sky. Put simply, the sky here looked like a kaleidoscope  
  
from hell. Every color imaginable was swirling around above his head in an almost hypnotizing  
  
fashion. With the bizarre, unearthly noises emanating from every place that couldn't be seen added  
  
to the mix, this jungle became the physical manifestation of just about every nightmare Matt ever  
  
had.  
  
Unless, of course, he was having a nightmare.  
  
He still hadn't been able to decide whether or not that was what was going on. While it  
  
was true that there was a huge amount of detail to what he was seeing, Matt had had some very  
  
detailed dreams over the years, and all the things he was seeing just seemed to be too incredible to  
  
be real. First and foremost among these things was Tsunomon.  
  
Tsunomon looked like large, round bean bag with a cartoonish face that resembled a cress  
  
between a bear and a wolf. That may sound a little threatening, but Tsunomon actually looked quite  
  
harmless, it's hard for a creature without limbs to be imposing. The only thing that looked  
  
threatening about him was the large horn that shot out of his forehead. Tsunomon had tried  
  
valiantly to explain to Matt what was going on, but, while he'd gotten most of it, it hadn't helped  
  
convince Matt that this wasn't all in his head. Supposedly, This place was called the "Digiworld"  
  
and all the creatures that lived there, including Tsunomon, were called "Digimon". aside from his  
  
companion, the only digimon Matt had seen thus far was a giant bug-like creature called  
  
Kuagumon and, given the fact that he'd tried to eat them, Matt wasn't sure that he wanted to meet  
  
any more.  
  
"Well, enough about T.K.," the little digimon picked up "didn't you say that some other  
  
humans were with you?"  
  
"Yeah, there a pretty motley crew. Let's see...There's Izzy, he's a total computer geek.  
  
Then there's Mimi, she's a real girly-girl, and there's Joe, he's a total wimp; a real nerd too. Then  
  
there's Sora. Now Sora's all right, she's not all weird like the others. See she-" Matt was about to elaborate  
  
on Sora's virtues when he noticed the puzzled look on Tsunomon's face.  
  
While most of Matt's dialect was new to the digimon, he'd been able to figure out most of  
  
it, but there was an odd omission in Matt's over view he'd noticed "I though you said there were  
  
seven of you, I only count six so far."  
  
"Oh, yea, there's also Tai." Matt added dismissively "He's this scrawny jerk who's an  
  
expert at being a pain in the neck."  
  
Before he could continue the insults, Tsunomon looked up with a start and shouted "Hold  
  
on a second!" So for a second, the two stood in silence.  
  
"Some one's coming." Tsunomon whispered "You wait here. I'll go see what it is."  
  
The little digimon then hopped, with surprising speed for a creature without limbs, up the  
  
tallest tree in view to take a look.  
  
"What do you see? Is it that bug thing again?" Matt called.  
  
"No. I'm not sure what it is. I've never seen anything that looked like this before." came  
  
the reply.  
  
Realizing that it could well be one of the others, Matt called back "Well, what does it look  
  
like?"  
  
"It's head looks very bizarre. It almost resembles a big, brown mushroom."  
  
"That'd be Tai, all right." Matt said with a laugh.  
  
"Your friend's a mushroom?"  
  
"Well, he's not a mushroom, but he's actually not that different from your every day  
  
fungus." was Matt's sarcastic answer.  
  
Not sure how serious Matt was, Tsunomon hopped down from the tree and said "Come  
  
on, let's go find him."  
  
To say that Tai was happy to see Matt would be an understatement of apocalyptic  
  
proportions, thrilled doesn't even cover it adequately.  
  
"MAN, it's good to finally see a face that doesn't have fangs or antennas or something  
  
else coming out of it!" laughed Tai as he gave Matt a bear hug that came dangerously close to  
  
cutting off his air flow. Matt, despite himself, was glad to see another human as well; fortunately  
  
for Tai. If he'd been anything less than thrilled, he wouldn't have ignored the urge to sock Tai  
  
upside the head in response to the hug.  
  
"Hey, lay off, man!" he responded instead "Where are the  
  
others?"  
  
At that, Tai's face darkened "Oh, please. If I had seen any one, any one at all, would I be  
  
glad to see you? I haven't seen a single sign of intelligent life on this rock." he said, trying to cover  
  
up his discouragement..  
  
"What do you mean ? I've been here with you the whole time!" shouted a round, pink  
  
thing behind Tai.  
  
"Oh, hey, you haven't met. Matt this is Koromon. Koromon, Matt."  
  
"Hey! You've got one of those things following you too?" remarked Matt.  
  
Ignoring Matt, Koromon shouted to Tsunomon "Cool! You found your partner too!"  
  
"Yep!" he answered proudly "We've been looking for you and the others. I bet they've  
  
found there partners too!"  
  
"What?" Shouted Matt and Tai, almost in unison. Matt continued with "There are more of  
  
you?"  
  
"Uh huh," answered Koromon "there are seven of us in our little group. We've all been  
  
waiting for you guys."  
  
Hmmm...If they were waiting for us, they must have known we were coming. I wonder  
  
who told them? Matt thought to himself for a moment before getting back to the more pressing  
  
matter "Well, we were going to look for the others down in that valley, but I guess you did it for  
  
us."  
  
"Yeah, nobody, we know down there." Tai sighed "But the jungle's supposed to thin out  
  
off that way." he said as he motioned to his right "That sounds like some place worth checking out."  
  
"OK, let's go!" shouted Matt, already on his way.  
  
"HEY! Wait for me!" cried Tai, running to keep up.  
  
Behind the two, Koromon and Tsunomon hopped along together. "So, what do you think  
  
of them?" Tsunomon asked, motioning ahead towards Tai and Matt.  
  
"Well, I guess I pictured them as being a little bigger." Koromon answered  
  
"They sure  
  
don't look like anything I've seen before. What's that big black thing on... uh, what's your's  
  
named again?"  
  
"Matt," Tsunomon explained "and the thing is called a jacket. They're supposed to be  
  
worn to stay warm, but he says he just wears it because he likes to."  
  
"He must get cold easily." Koromon wondered.  
  
"That stuff on-what's his name? Oh, yea-Tai's head looks pretty weird too." Tsunomon  
  
commented. Then he remembered some strange writing he'd seen on Tai's clothing "By the way,  
  
what's a Hendrix?" he asked.  
  
"Oh, what ever you do, don't ask him that!" Koromon answered urgently "I did and it  
  
took him, like, two hours to finish telling me."  
  
"You're joking, right?" laughed Tsunomon, incredulously.  
  
"No way!" replied Koromon, serious, but with an odd grin on his face "He just stopped  
  
dead in his tracks, took a deep breath, and then I just had to sit there and wait for him to run out of  
  
words."  
  
"Well, what is it, anyway?" Tsunomon pried.  
  
"Some human that made music."  
  
"You mean they have humans that actually make music?" said Tsunomon, surprised. They  
  
had music in the digiworld, but nobody actually invented it as far as he knew. It had always just  
  
been there.  
  
"Uh huh." answered Koromon "But I hope he did it better than Tai. He tried to show me  
  
and it was horrible!" Koromon then let out a ridiculous sounding howl to illustrate. After taking a  
  
moment to laugh, the two scurried of to catch up with there partners.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
It took the better part of that day, but Matt an Tai were able to find the others. Sora had  
  
found TK shortly after she woke up and had been looking after him until they found them. The  
  
four found Izzy trying to collect sap from one of the gray/purple trees.  
  
Apparently, he'd been at it  
  
for some time, because he wouldn't he wouldn't quit until he'd gotten through the ridiculously  
  
tough bark. As it turned out, the tree was completely hollow. Izzy was pretty annoyed at this, but  
  
the knowledge latter came in handy when they found Mimi. Some how, she'd managed to land in  
  
the middle of one of the trees, and everyone else had to help her cut a hole to get out. Joe was  
  
making use of the odd trees as well, except he was hiding in the branches on the top and wouldn't  
  
come down no matter how much the others yelled at him (they finally had to put together a rough  
  
lasso and drag him down).  
  
As Tsunomon and Koromon had suggested, all of the others had digimon following them  
  
just like Matt and Tai. They all were the same in the sense that none of them were very big and all  
  
seemed to resemble a cross of a beanie baby and an acid tripper's fantasy. Outside of that, they  
  
really had very little in common with each other.  
  
Yokomon, who said she was Sora's, looked a bit like a pink onion with petal like antenna  
  
coming out of her head and a ring of toe-like projections below her to provide locomotion.  
  
Motimon, Izzy's little companion, was more of a pink sock puppet. Although he didn't  
  
have any legs on his stubby base, he did have two short arms with three finger-like stubs on each.  
  
While Yokomon might have looked like a plant, Tanemon, Mimi's digimon, actually was;  
  
looking like a walking bean sprout. She had four hoof/feet and a sprout with two leaves coming  
  
out of the top.  
  
Much to Joe's displeasure, he was followed by Bukamon, who, unlike his companions,  
  
actually looked like what we would consider to be a normal animal. He had the overall appearance  
  
of a very small seal, with the glaring deviation of a bright orange mohawk.  
  
T.K.'s new friend was Tokomon, a little, white ball of fluff with red cheeks and four tiny  
  
legs. He'd have seemed totally harmless if it weren't for his surprisingly numerous teeth.  
  
With the task of finding each other compleated, the seven kids and there companions  
  
found themselves faced with a much more daunting task:  
  
Finding a way of getting back to where they'd come from.  
  
It was this nut that, camped around there makeshift campfire, they tried to crack.  
  
"Why are we even thinking about trying to get home?" Joe whined, curled up in a ball  
  
away from the others "We don't know how! We don't know if it's even possable! I mean, for all  
  
we know, we could be on the other end of the universe! We could be in another dimention! And  
  
I'm sure there are plenty of other, worse thing that I haven't even thought of yet!"  
  
"I don't think it's possable for there to be a bad thing that you can't think of." Tai  
  
moaned.  
  
"Joe what chance do we have of succeding at anything if we act like weve already failed?"  
  
Sora admonished.  
  
"Well, we're going to fail, so I'm just getting a head start." Joe grumbled.  
  
"As it is, we don't have anything to fail or succsede at." Izzy pointed out, deep in thought  
  
"The only suggestion I've heard was T.K. idea about looking for an airport."  
  
T.K. wasn't with the others, after they ridiculed his airport idea (insuring some severe  
  
yelling at from Matt as a result) he decided to leave the planning to the older kids and was playing  
  
with Tokomon.  
  
"Hey, that guy looks a little like me!" squieled Tokomon about the little yellow creature on  
  
T.K.'s shirt.  
  
"Hey yeah! I bet you'd look a lot like Pikachu if we painted you yellow!" T.K. said.  
  
"You think we could try it some time?" Tokomon asked.  
  
"I don't know, I painted Mom's cat once, and she got pretty mad at me." sighed T.K.  
  
Meanwhile, back at the campfire, the others were hard at work planing there next move:  
  
"Say, you know what? If you stare long enough at the sky here you start trippin'."  
  
mumbled Tai.  
  
"Will you please concentrate, Tai?" shouted Matt "We need to work out a plan of what to  
  
do here!"  
  
"That's what I'm doing." said Tai, out of it "I do all my best work when I'm tripping."  
  
Matt figured that he knew better than to pursue that line of conversation any further, so he  
  
just shut up.  
  
Izzy, however didn't.  
  
"I certainly hope you don't mean that you make a habit of it." he said. Then Izzy suddenly  
  
had an idea. "Do you think there's any one here that would be capable of helping us?" he asked the  
  
digimon.  
  
"Well, capable, yes. But willing? I'm not so sure." answered Tsunomon.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Sora warily.  
  
"Well you see," started Motimon, in a knowledgeable vocabulary that didn't seem to fit  
  
his squeaking, cartoonish voice "the outer rim of File Island is populated by many villages of  
  
digimon."  
  
"You should see the Tanemon village!" Tanemon interrupted "It has the prettiest little  
  
beach you've ever seen! You can just lie there for hours and hours and forget about everything!  
  
It's great!"  
  
"OOOooo!" sighed Mimi "That sounds great! HEY, lets look for help there!"  
  
"AHEM!" sounded Motimon, trying to sound imposing but coming off more like a baby's  
  
chew toy getting run over. "I was just getting to that. I'm afraid that the seven of us are none to  
  
popular in these settlements."  
  
"Why?" asked Matt "Did you get kicked out?"  
  
Before Motimon could answer, Joe wined "Great, not only are stuck in some freak show,  
  
who knows how far away from home, with weird little things following us; but now it turns out  
  
that they could be exiles! And you don't get exiled from someplace for no reason. Maybe there  
  
criminals! What did you do?" that last part he directed at Bukamon who had perched himself on his  
  
shoulder.  
  
"Hey, I didn't do anything!" shouted Bukamon "Well, OK there was that little incident  
  
with the landslide, but that wasn't really my fault! I can prove it!"  
  
"No one made us leave any where" Yokomon explained "It's just that we aren't from any  
  
of those villages to begin with."  
  
"You see, they're inherently suspicious of any digimon that aren't from this island and,  
  
because we don't hail from one of the villages, they decided that we qualify." added Motimon.  
  
"Wait a minute!" interupted Yokomon "We're all quite welcome at the Yokomon village."  
  
"That's because they're Yokomon." Koromon pointed out "Yokomon welcome every  
  
body."  
  
"As I was saying..." Motimon shouted to regain the other's atention "Given there feelings  
  
about us, it doubtfull that anyone in the villages - expting, of course, the Yokomon -" he added,  
  
seeing the nasty glare Yokomon shot at him "would even considder helping a group of humans like  
  
you. We've never seen anything like you before."  
  
"I dunno, I think Leomon's shaped kind of like them." mumbled Koromon, absent  
  
mindedly.  
  
"THAT'S IT! LEOMON! Koromon, you're a GENIOUS!" shouted Tsunomon.  
  
"WHA-? What? What'd I do?" shouted Koromon, startled.  
  
"We can get Leomon to help us!"  
  
"That's it!" cried Motimon in agrement "Leomon! He knows everything!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" remarked Yokomon, incredulously "We can't go find  
  
Leomon!"  
  
"Why not?" asked Matt.  
  
"Is this Leomon from one of the digimon villages, too?" wondered Izzy.  
  
"No, and that's just the problem." sighed Yokomon "We're not sure where he live. All we  
  
know is that it's deep in the jungles of the island. We'd never make it even if we knew where to  
  
look."  
  
"Yokomon's right." concurred Tanemon "No one from the rim of the island ever goes  
  
very deep into the jungle. In fact, I don't think any one else has ever come as far as we did to find  
  
you."  
  
"Yep, that's us!" laughed Bukamon "Explorers! Adventurers! Pioneers!"  
  
"That's just my point." Yokomon insisted "given how hard it was for us to get this far  
  
there's no chance of us surviving a trip all the way in."  
  
"Man, you guys whine more than Joe." mumbled Tai "The seven of us are each ten times  
  
as strong as you. Well, I don't know about T.K., Mimi, and Joe, but the rest of us are at least."  
  
"Well, I don't know about that crack about Joe and Mimi," said Sora, with a scolding eye  
  
cast at Tai "but he does have a point, we can help you."  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute!" interrupted Bukamon "I don't think you quite understand the idea  
  
here. We're here to protect you, it doesn't go the other way around."  
  
"Well, ether way, I think it's getting to dark to do anything." broke in Matt, looking at the  
  
sky. While most of the colors were still there, it had all taken on a murky blue hue that was  
  
darkening it considerably. "I assume that you have nights here." he said.  
  
"That we do." answered Tsunomon "And you're right, we don't need to be running  
  
around anywhere in the dark."  
  
"Well, in that case," said Izzy stretching "I suggest that we get comfortable. Is seems we  
  
won't be going anywhere soon."  
  
With that, the group of ill-equipped adventurers gathered up what they could to make the  
  
night's stay more comfortable (aside from Matt ho had left to collect T.K.).  
  
"Oh, man! I thought I had a pillow in this case!" whined Mimi, rummaging discuragedly  
  
through her suitcase "Well, I guess it's all right, It probably wouldn't have been a good idea to use  
  
one on this dirty ground any way. How would any one have gotten the stain out?"  
  
"You'll get a neck cramp from sleeping on that suitcase, but at least you won't have any  
  
laundry!" poked Joe sarcastically, patting the duffel bag that was about to become his pillow.  
  
"Shut up." growled Mimi as she tried to cover up just how uncomfortable the suitcase  
  
actually was. Then she noticed Tanemon, who was sitting right by her head, and got an odd glint  
  
in her eye. "Say, now," she said, feeling her to make sure she was as soft as she'd remembered  
  
"you'd love to do something to help out your pal Mimi, wouldn't you?"  
  
Tanemon, guessing what Mimi had in mind, backed away "I'd love to help, Mimi, but I  
  
really need to keep my petals looking there best."  
  
"Oh, don't worry," chimed Mimi as she grabbed Tanemon any way "I'll get them all fixed  
  
up in the morning."  
  
Tanemon was about to protest further, but was distracted by an ear splitting howl from  
  
Tai. Looking over, the found him gingerly cradling the finger that Tsunomon had nearly bit off.  
  
"What the hell did you do that for?" he shouted at Tsunomon.  
  
"Well when I commented to Matt that your hair looked like a mushroom, he told me that  
  
you had a lot in common with a fungus; but, frankly, you don't taste a thing like one." When Tai  
  
look over to Matt for an explanation (though he really didn't need one) he could see that, despite  
  
the fact that his back was turned, he was laughing his head off.  
  
"Oh, very funny Matt." Tai growled as he put a few feet's distance between himself and  
  
Tsunomon.  
  
"How could you possibly think Tai was a mushroom?" asked Tanemon from underneath  
  
Mimi's head "It should be obvious that he's not,"  
  
"I wouldn't be talking about what's obvious if I were you." admonished Joe "Not after  
  
what I heard about your little rescue attempt when Mimi was in the tree."  
  
"Oh, man, I still can't believe you did that!" laughed Bakumon "You try to get her out of  
  
the tree by getting yourself stuck in it with her?"  
  
"Hey!" cried Yokomon "Mimi was wedged, upside down, in a very claustrophobic area.  
  
With a suitcase on top of her! Tanemon was trying to offer emotional support in what could have  
  
been a mentally and emotionally traumatizing situation!"  
  
"Yeah! What she said!" concurred Tanemon, clearly not comprehending what Yokomon  
  
said, but figuring that it was in her defense.  
  
"Can you all please stop shouting at each other?" interupter Sora (at quite a high volume  
  
herself) "We need to get some sleep, and You're not makeing it any easier!" At that, a silence fell  
  
over the campsite that the others had previously thought only a mother could bring about.  
  
"That's better." she said before curlling up to get some sleep.  
  
"Woosh." said Matt.  
  
"Tell me about it." replied Tai  
  
"AHEM?" responded Sora at ths continuing noise. Figuring that they knew what was  
  
good for them, Tai and Matt shut up and everyone had an quiet, uninterupted night.  
  
To Be Continued... 


	3. I Got Dem Ol' Digivolvin' Blues Again, M...

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter Three  
  
I live uptown  
  
I live downtown  
  
I live all around  
  
I had money  
  
I had none  
  
I had money  
  
I had none  
  
But I've never been so broke that I couldn't leave town  
  
I'm a changeling  
  
See me change  
  
I'm a changeling  
  
See me change  
  
I'm the air you breathe  
  
The food you eat  
  
The friends you greet  
  
In the swarming street  
  
See me change  
  
See me change  
  
I live uptown  
  
I live downtown  
  
I live all around  
  
I had money, yeah  
  
I had money  
  
I had money, yeah  
  
I had money  
  
But I've never been so broke that I couldn't leave town  
  
I'm the air you breath  
  
The food you eat  
  
The friends you greet  
  
On the swarming street  
  
See me change  
  
See me change  
  
I'm leaving town  
  
On the midnight train  
  
Gonna see me change change change  
  
change change change  
  
change change change  
  
"The Changling"  
  
By Jim Morrison  
  
from the album L.A. Woman by The Doors  
  
Chapter three  
  
I Got Dem Ol' Digivolving Blues Again, Mama  
  
Leomon stood deep in though in the center of Sunken Lake. It had been getting darker for  
  
some time. In most parts of File Island, it was almost a death sentence to be out during the night,  
  
but the Yokomon's dessert was barren enough that Leomon could relax a little. There was too  
  
much on his mind to concentrate on the dangers around him any way. His hopes, his dreams, they  
  
were right.  
  
The children were indeed the Digidestined.  
  
Leomon hadn't been able to prove it when they first arrived. He wasn't as familiar with  
  
the writings concerning the Digidestined as Centaurmon or Unimon so didn't know what they  
  
would look like, and Centaurmon and Unimon were, for all purposes, lost. So he'd waited; waited  
  
for undeniable proof. Now he had it. He'd seen the Digidestined in battle. He'd seen their digimon  
  
as well.  
  
Leomon had met the seven "strangers", as the other islanders called them, on several  
  
occasions. He'd always had a feeling that they would be the ones to accompany the Digidestined.  
  
There was obviously no doubting that now. He'd seen them digivolve.  
  
That was his proof. If Leomon tried to prove that the children were the digidestined  
  
simply by there alien nature, he would most likely be regarded as a loon. He may have had the  
  
respect of most digimon on the island, but they wouldn't swallow that even coming from him.  
  
"We've had plenty of visitors over the years they'd say, these kids are no different". But no fool  
  
could question this. They had made their digimon digivolve. Only the Digidestined could  
  
accomplish that.  
  
Now the question was, what to do now? Despite his status on the island, Leomon could  
  
count on little help from most of the island. While the Digimon would relish in condemning  
  
Devimon and giving grandiose speeches against him, Leomon knew that few of them would put  
  
there live on the line by opposing Devimon. Even if the Digidestened would be on there side.  
  
Anyway, Leomon thought, the last thing I need to do now is leave them to look for help. He  
  
would do what he could NOW.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER *************** /P  
  
"What are you guys waiting for?" barked Tai from the top of the hill "It's getting darker all  
  
the time!"  
  
"Apologies, master" said Matt with a mocking bow "but your humble servants require  
  
rest."  
  
"And a decent meal." added Mimi mournfully.  
  
"I concur." concurred Izzy "While I respect you digimon's eating habits, I'm afraid that  
  
leaves and berries alone don't keep humans very nourished."  
  
"Nonsence!" shot back Tentomon, indignant "Every one knows that a steady diet of  
  
leaves is the best way to stay in top condition!"  
  
"Yeah, just like every one knew that those green mushrooms would be better raw?" Asked  
  
Joe, still a little pale from the vomiting fit that the previously mentioned mushrooms brought on.  
  
"Well, it's what I heard, anyway." shrugged Tentomon "Besides, how do we know that  
  
is wasn't just you? Only you and Sora had any, and I haven't heard her complaining."  
  
"Trust me, it was the mushrooms." said Sora, who, until then, had decided to keep her  
  
queasiness to her self.  
  
By this time, Tai had wandered back down the hill and was sitting with the others. "OK, I  
  
admit that today's grub pretty much sucked, but we'll do better with breakfast tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah" poked Matt "I'm sure Tai misses his normal breakfast of speed, angel dust and a  
  
glass of acid and orange juice."  
  
"Oh, Ha, ha. Come on, let's go." said Tai, getting up again. "Really, it's getting dark."  
  
"He's right," said Agumon "we should get some place safer before we set up camp."  
  
"Over here!" called Gabumon, who had wandered ahead without any one noticing "I think  
  
I see a clearing ahead!"  
  
Eager to find somthing to do other than sit and bicker (all though the bickering was fun, in  
  
it's own way) the raged group made good time heading off behind Gabumon's lead. It took some  
  
time, but they found Gabumon's clearing. However, it wasn't a clearing; it was a lake.  
  
A big lake.  
  
They couldn't see the other side of the lake (not so much because of size, due to a combination of  
  
fog on the lake and a number of what appeared to be oil rigs sprouting up in the center), but that  
  
was the last thing on their minds. What was grabbing there attention was some kind of street car on  
  
a small island near the shore.  
  
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Sora, squinting through the fog.  
  
"If you're thinking it's a trolley, then yes it is." answered Tai, looking ahead with his  
  
telescope.  
  
"Who would put a street car out in the middle of a lake? That's pretty stupid." said Joe.  
  
"I agree," added Izzy "especially sense there doesn't seem to be any cables or rails  
  
connected to it."  
  
"Maybe it's just to look at?" offered Mimi.  
  
"Well, I know a way to find out." said Tai, making his way to the narrow stretch of land  
  
connecting the island to the shore.  
  
"Whoa! Just where do you think you're going?" asked Matt, running up next to Tai  
  
"Forgive me, but doesn't that thing look just a little suspicious to you?"  
  
"Matt's right!" shouted Joe "Who knows what could be hiding in that thing? What if it's a  
  
trap?"  
  
"What? So you wanna just sit out here all night? Come on, it'll be nice to sleep under a  
  
roof tonight." insisted Tai.  
  
"You're right" said Matt "but that doesn't mean that we all should just go waltzing into  
  
what could turn out to be a trap or somthing worse. Somebody needs to check it out first."  
  
"OK then, Mr. Hero." snapped Tai angrily "You wanna be the big brave grown up and  
  
make sure the scary trolley is safe for us little kids? Well go right ahead!"  
  
"Fine, I will!" growled Matt as he stormed of to the land bridge.  
  
"Wait a minute!" shouted Joe again "You're just going in by your self?"  
  
"No he's not." answered Izzy, running to catch up with Matt "I want to get a look at this  
  
street car myself."  
  
"Wha- well wait for me!" shouted Tentomon as he scrambled to catch up with Izzy.  
  
"Be careful, Matt!" yelled T.K. from the shore "You too, Izzy!"  
  
Matt waved back as a response as he, Izzy, Gabumon, and Tentomon started across the  
  
walkway.  
  
"Hmmm..." muttered Izzy to himself as he looked at the gravelly ground "This walkway  
  
doesn't look like a natural occurrence to me."  
  
"I know." agreed Matt "It's too straight. Too flat. It feels man made. And, of course that  
  
Street car obviously is."  
  
"Well, now. You don't know that." broke in Tentomon "It might be a natural occurrence."  
  
"Not in our world, it couldn't." said Matt.  
  
"But this is the Digiworld." pointed out Gabumon.  
  
"You have a point there." consented Izzy.  
  
"Shhhh!" interrupted Matt "We're getting close."  
  
Quietly, Matt and Izzy peeked in through the windows while Gabumon and Tentomon  
  
creaked through the side door. After a few moments of looking, they motioned for Matt and Izzy to  
  
come in.  
  
"It looks safe to me." whispered Gabumon.  
  
"Then what are you whispering for?" asked Matt, at a low volume himself.  
  
"Just playing it safe." Gabumon answered.  
  
Meanwhile, Izzy was crawling along the front end shining his flashlight under the seats  
  
"Well, I don't see anything so far. In fact, this looks to be the cleanest piece of public  
  
transportation I've ever seen."  
  
Seeing that Izzy had almost worked his way to the driver's seat, Matt asked "Well, in that  
  
case, can you give us some lights?"  
  
"I believe so." answered Izzy, looking over the antiquated knobs on the dashboard.  
  
Spotting one labeled Lights, Izzy figured that it was his best bet and puled it; filling the street car  
  
with illumination.  
  
"Thank you, Izzy." said Matt.  
  
"Yes, much better. Goodnight." yawned Tentomon stretching himself out on one of the  
  
seats.  
  
"I wonder when this was supposedly made." wondered Izzy to himself as he looked over  
  
the mostly wooden antique controls.  
  
"I don't know." answered Matt, looking at the advertisements lining the ceiling. "Some of  
  
these ads are really old, but others look pretty new. There's one for some radio shows, one for the  
  
Playstation 2- Hey!" at that, he tapped Izzy on the shoulder and pointed ad a colorful, psychedelic  
  
ad promoting the Fillmore West concert hall "I bet Tai will get a kick out of that."  
  
"A kick outa what?" asked Tai from the door.  
  
"Hey, you were supposed to wait for us to come get you!" scolded Matt.  
  
"Well, when the lights came on and you didn't blow up, we figured it must be safe. Hey,  
  
cool! This thing ran to the Fillmore!"  
  
"OOOooo!" squealed Mimi as she plopped onto one of the seats "This feels way better  
  
than that old suitcase!"  
  
"And best of all," added Palmon "now you won't have to use me as a pillow again!"  
  
"Dibs on the big one!" shouted T.K. making a beeline towards the larger seat in the back.  
  
"Hey!" whined Joe "Why should the littlest one get the biggest bed?"  
  
"Well, then I guess it's official," laughed Sora from the doorway "this is where we're  
  
sending the night."  
  
"Well, I'm sure not going to be the one to tell `em to get up and start walking again." said  
  
Tai, looking at his already dozing comrades.  
  
"Well, there may not be anything bad in here, but we still ought to have some one  
  
standing watch outside." suggested Matt.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure our big shot scout would love to keep the rest of us safe." mocked Tai.  
  
"If you're too tired and scared to, then sure, I'd be happy too."  
  
"WHAT? Whadda ya mean tired and scared? Come on Agumon!" Tai yelled as he  
  
stormed out.  
  
"Hey, wait a minute! I am tired and scared!" protested Agumon.  
  
"AUGUMON!!!!" came Tai's thunderous reply.  
  
"Coming! Coming!" shouted Agumon urgently as he ran out after Tai.  
  
"Can't believe he fell for that." sighed Matt, shaking his head.  
  
"Will someone please tell Tai to shut up? We're trying to sleep here!" complained Mimi.  
  
"OK" said Matt to Izzy (softly) "In a few hours I'll take over for Tai. You feel up to taking  
  
over after me?"  
  
"Glad to help." answered Izzy as he curled up to get some sleep before his watch.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
Outside, Tai and Augumon sat silently in the dark, cold fog that blanketed the lake.  
  
Agumon had started a fire, but there was just enough of a chilling breaze to hold it's heat in check.  
  
"Listen, Agumon." started Tai "I'm sorry I blew my stack back there."  
  
"It's alright." said Agumon "But you really ought to think through what you say before  
  
you say it. Otherwise, we wouldn't be sitting out here freazing our noses off."  
  
"Hey, you can go back inside any time you want." laughed Tai "Nobody's making you  
  
stay here."  
  
"Well, I'm sure not going to leave you out here in the middle of the night all by your self."  
  
answered Agumon.  
  
At that, Tai grined to himself; not just in apreciation of Agumon's loyalty, but in  
  
amusment at how ludicrous he sounded when saying it. Really, Agumon sounded pretty ludicous  
  
when he said anything. His voice was pretty close to someone going through the worst of puberty,  
  
cracking with every word. That voice seemed to go quite well with Agumon's awkward apearence.  
  
The little yellow dinosar was about three feet tall with a head almost equal to the size of the rest of  
  
his body and arms and legs both seemed rather spindly when compaired to his somewhat girthy  
  
midsection. Needless to say, the whole thing came together in a less than impossing figure. Still,  
  
looks could be deceving, and Agumon was a prime example, as Tai had learned earlier that day...  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
"I'm hungry!" Mimi whined for the tenth time that morning.  
  
"Me too!" wined T.K., also for the tenth time.  
  
"HEY! We're all hungry" barked Tai angrily "but there's not much we can do about that  
  
right now, so please, SHUT UP!"  
  
"Easy, Tai." admonished Koromon, "Shouting at each other won't help things much."  
  
"Yeah, I know..." agreed Tai dismisivly. How agreable Tai was in the morning was  
  
directly relaited to how good his breakfast was. And seeing how enjoiable his pile of leaves and  
  
berries was, Tai temper had been on a hair trigger all day.  
  
"I'm not sure what they're complaining about, I found breakfast to be very fufilling."  
  
comented Yokomon.  
  
"Well, none of us are exactly vegitarians." explained Sora.  
  
"OOO! In that case, we should go by the Tanemon vilage, and get somthing from the meat  
  
fields!" Tanemon piped up.  
  
"Really? You grow meat?" asked T.K.  
  
"Is it pork chop season yet?" asked Mimi licking her lips in antisipation.  
  
"Sorry to break in" Tsunimon broke in "but the Tanemon vilage is on the other side of the  
  
island. We can't just drop by for lunch."  
  
"Bummer." sighed Mimi.  
  
"Say, just where are we going, anyway?" asked Joe "It seems like we just woke up and  
  
started walking. Is there anyplace we're actualy trying to get to?"  
  
"I dunno," confesed Mimi "I've just been following Tai and Matt."  
  
"Tai? Matt?" asked Joe aprehesivly "Please tell me one of you has some Idea where we're  
  
going."  
  
"Nope." answered Matt, calmly "Not a clue."  
  
"They do, though." said Tai, pointing to Koromon and Tsunomon, before Joe had a  
  
chance to panic. "Ask them."  
  
"Very well," said Izzy "where exactly are we going?"  
  
"We're looking for Leomon, of corse." answered Tsunomon.  
  
"Well, where is he?"  
  
"I dunno" said Koromon "Why would we? We've never been that far into the island."  
  
"WHAT?" screamed Joe "You mean NOBODY has a clue where we're going?"  
  
"Don't be rediculous, Joe." said Bukamon "Leomon is supposed to drop by the Yokomon  
  
vilage a lot, so we'll see if anyone there can help us."  
  
"What do you mean, he's supposed to?" asked Sora, conserned.  
  
"Well, it's what Motimon told us." explained Tokomon from on top of T.K.'s head.  
  
"And how exactly do you know this, Motimon?" Izzy inquired of his companion.  
  
"Well, it's what I've heard, anyway." shruged Motimon.  
  
"Here comes Joe's panic atack." muttered Matt under his breath (quite corectly).  
  
"You HEARD?" Joe erupted. He would have esily elaborated had Tai not interupted.  
  
"Hey, chill out Joe! It's the closest thing to a plan anyone's been able to come up with so  
  
far, so we should try it."  
  
"But what if Motimon heard wrong?" Joe insisted "We could wind up waiting there  
  
forever and never geting anywhere!"  
  
"Well, if we're just going to sit around, which is pretty much all we did till we started  
  
moving, we might as well do it some place safe insted of in the middle of a jungle." said Matt.  
  
"But how do we know it's safe?" Joe continued "I'm sorry, but the idea of a village full of  
  
pink turnup things dosen't fill me with many thoughts of saftey."  
  
"Are you suggesting that a Yokomon would attack it's own guest without provication?"  
  
asked Yokomon, insulted.  
  
"Don't take it seriously, Yokomon," said Sora "Joe didn't mean it. He's just too scared  
  
stupid to think clearly right know."  
  
"Hey!" shouted Bukamon "Are you calling my pall Joe stupid?"  
  
"OH!" gasped Sora, sudenly realizing what she'd just said "I'm sorry! I didn't mean that  
  
the way it sounded!"  
  
"Well, how did you mean it?" chalenged Bukamon.  
  
"Hey, cut it out, you guys!" shouted Tai.  
  
"Yeah!" agreed Joe "While we're all buisy fighing with each other, who knows what  
  
could come out from those trees and get us?"  
  
No sooner were the words out of Joe's mouth than a chilling howl shot from among the  
  
foliage. "Boy, I hate it when I'm right." sighed Joe.  
  
"Wha- what was that?" stuttered T.K.  
  
"I don't know and, frankly, I never want to find out!" shrieked Mimi.  
  
"It sounded like it came from over there!" shouted Koromon, pointing to the group's  
  
right. In a flash, all the digimon had placed themselves between the trees and their human  
  
companions. Suddenly, a second howl, this one nearer than the first, raing from the trees.  
  
"Uh, oh." cried Matt sudenly "I hope that's not what I think it is!"  
  
"I'm afraid so," confirmed Tsunomon "Kuagumon!"  
  
"A fiend of your's?" asked Tai  
  
"You could say that." answered Matt, remembering the nearly succesful atempt on his and  
  
Tsunomon's life Kuagumon had made the day before.  
  
Before hehad a chance to explain it to Tai,  
  
Kuagumon crashed through the baried of trees. Simply put, it was huge. Nearly two stories tall,  
  
this giant, red, beetle-like creature lommed horificly over the others. Another bone chilling shreak  
  
blasted out of it's huge fangs as it snaped it's two branching pinsirs together.  
  
"OK!" said Bukamon nervously "Time to go!"  
  
The others quickly agreed and made off like a bullet. Kuagumon opened the wings on it's  
  
back and gave pursuit.  
  
"Holy cow, that guy's fast!" gasped T.K., looking back at their pursuer.  
  
"Where are we running now?" panted Joe.  
  
"Who cares?" yelled Koromon "As long as we get there fast!"  
  
"WHOA! PROBLEM!" shouted Matt from the front of the pack.  
  
"I'll say!" yelled Tai, screaching to a stop "Any body feel like doing some swimming?"  
  
Matt looked nervously down the huge cliff that they'd unintentionaly fled to.  
  
"OH, NO!" gasped Sora "Where are we supposed to go?". Looking to ether side, they say  
  
that the trees around them were too thick to run through.  
  
"Well, what ever we do we'd better do it fast!" cried Izzy "Kuagumon will be on top of us  
  
any second!"  
  
"He is on top of us!" shouted Tsunomon as Kuagumon shot from the sky towards them.  
  
"LOOK OUT!" shouted Tai as he braced for impact. But that impact never came.  
  
A sudded blast of light inveloped their digimon. Startled by the flash, Kuagumon fell  
  
back. When the kids looked to see what had hapeded to the digimon, they found that they were no  
  
longer there. At least not as they knew them. It wasn't untill afterwards that they expained it, but  
  
the digimon had digivolved.  
  
The concept of "Digivolving" is one quite alien to life in our world; indeed, even the  
  
digimon don't fully understand it. Put simply, digivolving is the sudden, spontaneous changing of  
  
an organism from one form to another. Any resemblance to Darwin's theory of evolution is a  
  
surface resemblance only. While Darwin's theory claims the gradual modification of spices over  
  
thousands of generations (and none of his supporters will venture to agree on how), digivolving is  
  
the sweeping "rebuilding" (for lack of a better term) of a single organism in a manner of seconds.  
  
The result is by no means uniform, any one digimon could, in theory, digivolve into any one of  
  
dozens of other digimon. In standard practice (which is important to point out, as, will eventually  
  
be seen, the digivolving of the Digidestined was by no means the standard) digivolving hinges on  
  
the strengths and experience of the digimon in question. If the digimon is stronger and more  
  
experienced, it will digivolve into a better new digimon than if it wasn't. The possible outcomes  
  
are also determined by what species the digimon is currently of, or, less specifically, what level it  
  
is at.  
  
Species of digimon are commonly divided into levels, or stages: Infant, In- Training,  
  
Basic, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Usually, a digimon will digivolve from their current stage  
  
to the next highest, it is, however, possible for digimon to skip ahead levels in the process.  
  
Digimon can also digivolve backward to previous levels as well, if their energy cannot sustain their  
  
current form. For the digimon, digivolving is an accepted, albeit poorly understood, part of life.  
  
Most digimon are expected to digivolve several times within their life time, rarely going back and  
  
repeating forms. It is even rarer for a digimon to reach as high as Mega. All this information was,  
  
of coarse, totally unknown to the seven dumbfounded humans witnessing the process. All they  
  
could tell was in a flash the digimon that had traveled with them for the past day or so were  
  
changed into totally different creatures.  
  
Koromon was now Agumon, a small yellow skinned dinosaur-like creature.  
  
Tsunomon was now Gabumon, a yellowish creature that seemed to be wearing the fur of  
  
a white, wolf-like animal on it's back and had a long horn on it's forehead.  
  
Yokomon had turned into Byomon, a pink bird with finger/claws on the ends of it's  
  
wings.  
  
Motimon turned into Tentomon, a red, flying beetle.  
  
Tanemon had become Palmon, a walking plant with petals for hair, large leaves for arms,  
  
and roots for digits.  
  
Bukamon was now Gomamon, a white seal looking creature (still sporting Bukamon's  
  
orange mohawk).  
  
Last, Tokomon had become Patamon, a brown, furry creature with bat-like wings for  
  
ears.  
  
While Kuagumon was still reeling from the pyrotechnics of the digivolving, the digimon  
  
charged him. Gabumon and Agumon attacked first. Agumon spewed small ball of fire into  
  
Kuagumon's side while Gabumon spit a blue laser straight into Kuagumon's face. It staggered  
  
backwards, almost on top of Byomon, who retaliated with a "spiral twister": a purplish cork screw  
  
that seemed to emanate from her beak. The attack hit Kuagumon square on the back and knocked  
  
him straight into Tentomon's "super shocker" a storm of electricity that swept across Kuagumon's  
  
head.  
  
The kids stood frozen as they watch the battle; frozen, that is, until Gomamon shouted to  
  
them "What are you waiting for? Get away from that cliff!" With a start, they realized that their  
  
companions had knocked Kuagumon out of the path he had previously been blocking. They made  
  
a mad dash for the safety of the trees as Kuagumon began to retaliate against it's attackers. Giving  
  
a furious roar, it swung its giant claws up to where Tentomon was hovering, but was stopped mid-  
  
air by Palmon's "Poison Ivy": her finger/roots shot at a fantastic rate out from her arms and  
  
wrapped around Kuagumon's arm. "Palmon to the rescue!" she shouted exuberantly.  
  
Unfortunately, her exuberance proved to be premature as Kuagumon flung it's arm in front of it; in  
  
the process flinging Palmon through the air and straight into Tentomon.  
  
"So much for 'Palmon to  
  
the rescue'." giggled T.K. to himself, thoroughly enjoying the proceedings.  
  
"I wouldn't be  
  
giggling if I were you." groaned Tentomon from under a dazed Palmon "It looks like Kuagumon's  
  
figured out what's going on!"  
  
Indeed, during the first few moments of the battle, Kuagumon had rather blindly stumbled  
  
into the attacks being thrown upon it, but now, despite it's huge bulk, it dodged effortlessly  
  
between them. "Kuagumon can be a little slow, but one's it catches on, it's deadly!". As if to  
  
reinforce Tentomon's warning, Kuagumon flashed out it's wings and shot into the sky, knocking  
  
Patamon and Byomon to the ground in the process.  
  
"Man, this flying thing is harder than it looks."  
  
whined Patamon, landing on her head.  
  
"Uh, guys. I really have to insist that we leave." stuttered Joe "Preferably NOW!"  
  
"No!" shouted Gabumon as he narrowly avoided Kuagumon's pincers "Now that he's  
  
riled up, he'd just follow us!"  
  
"He's right!" growled Gomamon "We need to teach this punk a lesson!"  
  
"I'm all for teaching it a lesson, but I don't think you can do it!" cried Izzy "It look's like  
  
that thing has you out gunned!"  
  
Weather or not they heard him, or they just pretended not to was more than Izzy could tell.  
  
In any case, the digimon launched back at their terrifying opponent.  
  
"What'll we do?" moaned  
  
Sora "That thing's much more powerful than they are!"  
  
The seven stood in terrified silence as they  
  
watched their companions continue to take a beating. Suddenly, Izzy's face lit up.  
  
"THE  
  
CLIFF!" he shouted with such volume that even the digimon (excluding Kuagumon,  
  
unfortunately) froze for a moment and looked over towards him.  
  
"You don't have to overpower him!" shouted Izzy frantically "Just knock him of the cliff!"  
  
"Yeah! That's a great idea!" shouted Tai exuberently, "Send that overgrown roach from  
  
hell for a swim!"  
  
"Uh, problem, Tai." interrupted Matt "It has wings! It can just fly back up!"  
  
"We can put a stop to that!" shouted Tentomon "Take out his wings!"  
  
Fortunately for them, Kuagumon must have been too battle crazed to listen to the  
  
shouting, as it though nothing of spreading it's wings to take off just as Izzy had his revelation.  
  
Right on cue, Palmon lassoed one of it's leathery wings and dragged it to the ground. Kuagumon  
  
leaned back and almost fell on it's back trying to figure out what was happening as the other  
  
digimon charged. Agumon and Gomamon jumped on top of the leathery wing and sunk there teeth in to it.  
  
"Yuck!" muttered Agumon, his voice muffled by the mouth full of wing "This is disgusting!"  
  
As culinarily unpleasant as it may have been, Agumon, Gomamon, and Palmon held  
  
Kuagumon's wing down long enough for Gabumon, Tentomon, Byomon, and Patamon to blast a  
  
hole through it. Kuagumon doubled over in pain, knocking the three hangers on off it's wing the  
  
process. "Now's our chance!" cried Byomon; and with that, the seven digimon head butted  
  
Kuagumon, rolling it off the cliff.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
An extraordinarily large pop from the fire snapped Tai up with a start. Realizing, over a  
  
few seconds, just how close he'd come to falling asleep, Tai looked over to Agumon, who was out  
  
like a light.  
  
"Hey, wake up, man." he groaned as he poked Agumon in the side.  
  
"HUH?" started Agumon, jumping up. "Hey, you were supposed to keep me awake!"  
  
"No, you were supposed to keep me awake!" shot back Tai.  
  
"Well, one of us needs to stay awake." said Agumon, sitting back down "How long till  
  
we can go back inside?"  
  
"Not long enough." sighed Tai, looking at his watch. Looking around him with a yawn,  
  
he added "This seemed like a good idea at the time..."  
  
"OW! What happened?" Tentomon grunted groggily from the floor.  
  
"Oh! Sorry Tentomon!" Izzy gasped apologetically from his seat "I was attempting to get  
  
into a more comfortable position an I kicked you off by accident!"  
  
"Ugh..." Tentomon moaned as he crawled back into the driver's seat were he and Izzy  
  
had been all night "I thought you were supposed to be getting some sleep."  
  
"I tried, but I couldn't." sighed Izzy "I've been thinking about today, and I just have to  
  
many questions to think about anything else."  
  
"I though we all ready explained that." said Tentomon, befuddled "You made us digivolve  
  
with your digivices."  
  
"That may be enough for you, but I would still like to know how." explained Izzy,  
  
cradling his "digivice" in his hands. Tentomon and the other digimon had insisted that it was these  
  
mysterious devices that had caused them to digivolve, but had yet to shed any light on how.  
  
"OH!" began Tentomon, uncertain "Well, uh...you see..I mean...you know...uh...ha-  
  
ha!...ooohhh..."  
  
"If you don't know, just say so."  
  
"OK, I have no idea." confessed Tentomon.  
  
"Well, that makes two of us." sighed Izzy, staring out the window "I've never heard of  
  
anything like it."  
  
"What? Don't things digivolve in your world?"  
  
"NO!" Izzy almost laughed "As far as all scientific knowledge goes, it should be  
  
impossible!"  
  
Tentomon sank back into the chair with a sigh, extremely troubled at his inability to help  
  
Izzy out.  
  
"There is one more thing I'd like to ask as well." added Izzy. Immediately, Tentomon shot  
  
up, thrilled at the chance to redeem himself "Shoot away!" he said eagerly.  
  
"Why are you called "Digital Monsters"? What is the significance of the word 'Digital'?"  
  
Although Tentomon's face wasn't as expressive as a human's, Izzy could still recognize  
  
the look of some one totally lost (which he got a lot).  
  
"What?" asked Izzy, a little uncomfortable under Tentomon's uncomprehending stare.  
  
"Well, I mean..." Tentomon stuttered, a little confused over what his problem was himself  
  
"Nobody's ever asked somthing like that before. It's just so common, I don't think anyone even thinks about it, really. Well, anyway, I guess I'd always figured it was just a name; that it  
  
didn't actually mean anything."  
  
"Perhaps..." said Izzy thoughtfully "But the "Monster" part makes perfect sense literally-  
  
no offense, Tentomon!" he added hurriedly.  
  
"None taken," Tentomon assured him "I can see what you mean."  
  
"And when you take into account the names "Digivice" and even the "Digital World", it  
  
seems to become even more significant."  
  
"Hmmm..." Tentomon thought to himself as he looked down to his claws "I certainly  
  
don't look very digital..."  
  
"My point exactly." concurred Izzy quietly.  
  
The two were silent for a minute as their minds worked around the questions to now avail.  
  
after some time, Tentomon suddenly blurted "OH! Now I can't sleep!"  
  
Matt sat quietly on his seat, eyes half closed, starring over at T.K. He was sprawled out  
  
over his bench with Patamon under his head as a pillow. His limp, bright blond hair contrasted  
  
sharply with Patamon's brown coat. Matt had all ways been amused with the difference between  
  
his hair and T.K.'s. It seemed that Matt had all ways been fighting a loosing battle to make his  
  
unruly main stay in place, but there was always someplace where it wasn't. On the other had  
  
T.K.'s hair seemed to like nothing more than to lie down and stay put, but he always managed to  
  
find a way to mess it up.  
  
As Matt reflected on this, T.K. curled of in his sleep, crossing his bare arms tightly.  
  
Suddenly, Matt realized just how cool it had gotten in the trolley. While he had his jacket and long  
  
pants on, T.K. was still wearing a tee-shirt and shorts. "Hey, Gabumon." Matt muttered to the  
  
Digimon draped over his lap. When he didn't respond, Matt tried again, with a shove added.  
  
"Mmmurmpfh... wha-?" groaned Gabumon groggily.  
  
"Why don't you go lay over there with T.K."  
  
"Why? What's the matter?" asked Gabumon, still a little out of it.  
  
"All your fur's making me sweat. If you've got to cuddle on somebody, go do it on T.K.,  
  
he likes the heat."  
  
Gabumon looked over to T.K. for a moment and then looked back to Matt "Oh, I see." he  
  
said knowingly "You want me to keep him warm."  
  
"That's not what I said." said Matt curtly, annoyed that Gabumon had seen through him  
  
so easily.  
  
"No, but it's what you meant." pressed Gabumon.  
  
"Hey, if that's what you want to think, go ahead." said Matt, trying to look like he didn't  
  
care.  
  
"Sence it's what you already think, I will."  
  
"Cut it out." snapped Matt.  
  
"Why are you trying to act like you don't car about T.K.?" asked Gabumon, confused.  
  
"I said, cut it out." growled Matt.  
  
Gabumon took the hint and shut up, and Matt laid back again. He couldn't relax,  
  
however, with Gabumon's concerned gaze locked on him. After a few moments, he'd had  
  
enough. Knocking Gabumon onto the floor, Matt got up and stormed out. Rubbing the sore on his  
  
back, Gabumon rushed off to catch up. From the front seat, Tentomon, who had been trying quite  
  
unsuccessfully not to eavesdrop, looked over to Izzy, who hadn't been able to avoid hearing  
  
everything either, and mussed "I wonder what his problem is."  
  
"I have no idea." said Izzy.  
  
Tai, despise his best attempts to the contrary, was dangerously close to nodding off again  
  
when Matt emerged from the trolley with Gabumon behind him.  
  
"What? You don't think I can handle this by myself?" said Tai, ticked.  
  
"Nah, I just couldn't sleep." said Matt as he hunched down next to the fire.  
  
That was all that was said for the next few minutes. Eventually, however, Tai, getting  
  
increasingly bored and needing some activity to keep him awake, decided to try for some conversation.  
  
"How's everybody doing in there?"  
  
"Asleep." muttered Matt.  
  
"Ohh." replied Tai OK, let's try that again he though to himself. "How's T.K. been  
  
holding up?"  
  
"OK." mumbled Matt, becoming annoyed at Tai's probing.  
  
"Yeah," Tai laughed "I would have thought that a kid as young as T.K. would have been  
  
as scared as Joe, but he seems to be having a ball."  
  
"T.K. doesn't scare easily." agreed Matt, "He can always find something to laugh about  
  
in anything."  
  
"Must not be a family trait." Tai said with a snicker.  
  
"Not at all." agreed Matt without emotion as he tossed a pebble into the fire to watch the  
  
sparks.  
  
"Honestly, It's hard to believe that you two grew up in the same house." continued Tai,  
  
innocently. Gabumon shook his head at Tai's unintentional prod as Matt explained "That's because  
  
we didn't." as he sent another stone into the fire.  
  
"Wait a minute, what?" stuttered Tai, not sure what he'd stumbled onto.  
  
"Mom ditched me and Dad way back and took T.K. with her." Matt said coldly.  
  
Tai just sat dumbfounded as Matt fumbled around for another stone to send into the fire.  
  
He found one but, seeing how big it was, refrained and just held it. Then, for reasons that escaped  
  
him at the moment, he started talking again.  
  
"See, Mom got into all that 'Women's Rights' junk and stuff like that. All of a sudden,  
  
she couldn't stand the thought of some..."Male Chauvinist Pig" I think were her words, running  
  
thing. Then Dad took his job in Tokyo and she blew up all over him about it." Matt tightened his  
  
grip around the stone ad he continued, icily "She didn't care that his job back home wasn't getting  
  
him anywhere, it was just all "Who do you think you are, anyway? What makes you think you  
  
know what's best for this family?" Of course, he didn't ask her why she thought she knew, not  
  
that it would have mattered. You can't reason with her any more anyway. Finally, one day, she  
  
just picked T.K. up from school, packed up all the good stuff from the apartment, and boom!  
  
They're gone. Didn't ask if he wanted to stay or not, just took him."  
  
Suddenly, there was a shattering crack! Agumon, who had dozed off once again, awoke  
  
with a start and looked around anxiously to see what had happened as Matt calmly allowed the tiny  
  
fragments of what was once the rock he was holding fall to the ground.  
  
"Oh, man..." sighed Tai, shaking his head "I'm sorry, man."  
  
"Gee, I've never heard that before." Matt snorted.  
  
"No, really!" Tai insisted, "I've got a little sister about T.K.'s age. I can't imagine  
  
something like that happening between us."  
  
For the first time sense he'd sat down, Matt looked at Tai. He realized something he had  
  
never fully grasped about Tai until that moment.  
  
"You must really love her, huh?" he asked.  
  
"Well...Yeah." answered Tai "Why not?"  
  
Matt shook his head, feeling an unexpected amount of pity for naive kid.  
  
"Here's some  
  
advice:" he said, getting up "Don't get too attached. Nothing lasts forever, so, take it from me, if  
  
you let something get too close, you're just asking to get hurt." With that, Matt walked off down  
  
the land bridge back to the shore, with Gabumon tagging along.  
  
"You know what, Agumon?" Tai said, a little dazed "That guy is messed up."  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
Leomon fell to the ground, stopping enough of the ice beam to prevent injury, but not  
  
enough to avoid loosing his footing. Seadramon started to continue down the river, but Leomon  
  
leaped at it again. "Fist Of The Beast King!" he shouted as he fired another blast at the giant  
  
serpent. This time he connected, but only partially. Now fully angered, Seadramon turned and  
  
lunged at it's attacker. Leomon artfully dodged the lunging bit, and leaped onto Sedramon's back.  
  
He quickly started a frantic search for the gear that was embedded somewhere in the beast's hide.  
  
Unfortunately, he hadn't had much time to look before Seadramon dove under water knocking  
  
Leomon off.  
  
Although, calling upon all his disciplining, he kept panic from setting in, he was still  
  
fully aware of the danger he was in. There was absolutely no way Leomon could out perform  
  
Seadramon in the water. Eager to reinforce this, Seadramon wrapped it's tail around the struggling  
  
lion flung him straight into the air. If he had been allowed to fall, Leomon would have easily  
  
landed on his feet; however, Seadramon had no intention of allowing him to get that chance. It  
  
swung it's huge tail around and swatted Leomon down to the shore. Despite his best efforts,  
  
Leomon could not avoid landing square on his head. The last thing he saw before loosing  
  
consciousness was Seadramon heading down the rive again.  
  
Straight for the Digidestined.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER***************/P  
  
Matt sat quietly by the edge of the shore, watching the eerie fog drift slowly across the  
  
surface of the lake. Beside him, as usual, sat Gabumon. The More Matt thought about it, the less  
  
he knew what to do with him. Given the dangers of the Digiworld that seemed to assert themselves  
  
at every opportunity, Matt wasn't keen on the idea of sending Gabumon away. Still, it was  
  
becoming a real nuisance to have him always following right behind.  
  
"Did you really mean all that stuff you said earlier?" asked Gabumon.  
  
"Absolutely." answered Matt.  
  
Gabumon sighed and decided that conversation was a lost cause, so he just sat there with  
  
Matt. He sat. And sat. And sat some more. And after that, they managed to squeeze in some  
  
sitting. Just as Gabumon thought that all this vigorous sitting would be the end of him, Matt  
  
stirred. He reached down to the right pocket of his jacket and fish out an object. The thing in  
  
Matt's hand was made mettle and had some kind of gold substance covering it. Well, it covered  
  
some of it, a lot had been chipped off. There also seemed to be holes running through it on each  
  
side. Gabumon was about to ask what it was when Matt cupped his hands around it, raised it to his  
  
mouth, and began to blow into it. The result was the most incredible sound that Gabumon had ever  
  
heard. As Matt played, he just stood there, letting the high mournful sounds wash over him,  
  
soaking up as much as he could.  
  
"Hey, what's that?" Agumon said, looking up.  
  
"What's what?" asked Tai, anxious to find anything to keep him busy.  
  
"Listen!" said Agumon. Tai did and sure enough, he could hear some kind of noise  
  
coming from where Matt and Gabumon had run off.  
  
"Weird... What is that?" mumbled Agumon, to himself.  
  
Tai listened for a moment more to the faint sound, then his face lit up. "OH! It's a  
  
harmonica!"  
  
"Who or what is that?"  
  
"It's an instrument." Tai explained "Remember how I told you about guitars? It's kind of  
  
like that."  
  
"Oh..." said Agumon "I still think it's weird."  
  
"Yeah, I know." laughed Tai "I'm not to crazy for them ether. They don't go loud enough  
  
for me."  
  
"That's incredible!" said Gabumon, eventually.  
  
"Huh?" said Matt, startled.  
  
"That music. It was incredible!"  
  
"Oh...thanks." Matt stuttered, a little embarrassed.  
  
"Where did you learn to do that?" asked Gabumon.  
  
"I just taught myself, really." Matt explained "Dad bought it for me at a gas station when I  
  
was little and I've been messing around on it ever sense."  
  
"It must have been expensive." mused Gabumon, reflecting on how beautiful it had  
  
sounded.  
  
"Naw, it was just a cheap souvenir." Matt laughed "I didn't even want it, really; Dad just  
  
got it to calm me down after T.K. threw up on me." At that, Gabumon laughed, while Matt  
  
grinned.  
  
Then, suddenly, he frowned.  
  
"Is something wrong, Matt?" Gabumon asked, noticing the sudden frown.  
  
"No, nothing's wrong." Matt lied. To him, something was indeed wrong. Normally, if  
  
anyone else asked something like that, the answer would never exceed five words. Yet, tonight,  
  
Matt had been talking more than he had in the previous week. His conversation with Tai didn't  
  
strike him as unusual, he had no problem talking about his mother, it felt good to vent his anger like that. It was everything else; all the  
  
things he'd been telling Gabumon. He never just went on talking like that.  
  
NEVER.  
  
"Uh, Matt?" whispered Gabumon, snapping Matt out of his self-reflection.  
  
"What's with the whispers?" asked Matt, himself whispering, just in case it was  
  
something important.  
  
"Do you see that?"  
  
"See what?"  
  
"There." said Gabumon, pointing to the lake "To the left of the island."  
  
Matt squinted hard and, sure enough, he saw something. A spot in the water darker than  
  
all the rest. It didn't seem to be on the surface; it was almost like...  
  
"Something's under the water!" Matt almost shouted.  
  
Hey, Izzy!" said Tentomon urgently, poking Izzy in the side.  
  
"I had nearly fallen asleep." complained Izzy, groggily "What is it?"  
  
"Did you feel something?" asked Tentomon, nervously.  
  
"No, feel what?"  
  
"Sort of a shake." explained Tentomon "Kind of like- THERE! There it is again!"  
  
That time, Izzy did feel it. a slight, silent rumbling from the floor.  
  
"Could the trolley be trying to move?" wondered Izzy, himself getting nervous.  
  
"I don't think so." said Tentomon, looking at the control panel "Nothing seems to be  
  
happening here."  
  
"Maybe, it's just our imagination." wondered Izzy. Unfortunately, that theory was  
  
quickly put to death. From the door, Tai poked his head in and asked "Hey, did you guys feel  
  
something just now?"  
  
"Well, so much for imagination." sighed Izzy, now quite concerned.  
  
Matt and Gabumon frantically ran up the land bridge to the island.  
  
"Do you think it's Kuagumon again?" asked Matt.  
  
"I don't think so," panted Gabumon, trying to keep up "Kuagumon may fly, but it doesn't  
  
swim."  
  
"WHOA! LOOK!" shouted Matt screeching to a stop. While we now stood at the end of  
  
the bridge, there was still several feet of water between them and the island.  
  
"The island's moving!" Gabumon cried as he stopped next to Matt.  
  
"Well, come on!" shouted Matt "It's not going to fast, we can swim to it!"  
  
"NO!" shouted Gabumon "That thing's out there! It's too dangerous!"  
  
Hoping to get some answers, Agumon ran out to meet Tai he ran back outside with Izzy  
  
and Tentomon in tow.  
  
"Do you guys know what's shaking us?" he asked frantically.  
  
"Not yet," answered Izzy "but give us a minute."  
  
"HEY! GUYS!" Matt shouted from a distance.  
  
"Hey, Matt! Why don't you join the party over here?" shouted Tai.  
  
"If you hold still for a moment, I will." Matt called back.  
  
"What do you mean..." Izzy started "THAT'S IT! We're moving!"  
  
"WHAT?" shouted Tai, Agumon, and Tentomon in unison.  
  
"There's something in the lake!" Matt explained "We think it's pushing you out!"  
  
"But..." Izzy stuttered, incredulously "How could something move an island this size  
  
without making more of a racket?"  
  
"Hey! Do you have a better explanation?" shot Matt back.  
  
Before Izzy could answer, Tai yelled "OK, smart guy; if you know so much, what do we  
  
do about it?"  
  
"Do I look like I know?" shouted Matt.  
  
"You don't look like anything." Agumon called to the rapidly shrinking figures in the  
  
distance "You're getting too far away."  
  
"Try attacking the water!" Gabumon yelled "Maybe you'll hit whatever's moving you!"  
  
"But how will we know where to fire?" called Tentomon, already looking frantically  
  
around the fog shrouded water.  
  
"Just shoot!" shouted Matt hoarsely, all this yelling starting to get to him.  
  
"I know, Tentomon!" Izzy said "Just use "Super Shocker" on the surface; the water will  
  
conduct the electricity."  
  
"Ah ha!" shouted Tentomon eagerly "A sure fire hit!"  
  
With that, he leaped into the air and unleashed a blast across the surface. In the momentary  
  
brightening of the water, the four could see a very large shape in the lake directly in front of them.  
  
"Oh dear..." muttered Tentomon, as he watched the form rise out of the water, and keep  
  
on rising untill he almost had to look straight up to see it's head "Maybe that wasn't such a good  
  
idea..."  
  
T.K. awoke with a start in a very unpleasant manner, somthing was covering his face and  
  
there seemed to be somthing heavy on his head.  
  
"Hey! what's on my head?" he shouted, dissoriented.  
  
"Uh...you are!" he heard Patamon answer. He then helped T.K. roll right side up again  
  
and pull his shirt of his head "Are you OK?" Patamon asked.  
  
"Yeah," answered T.K. "but I thought I'd out grown this rolling out of bed thing."  
  
"You do that a lot?"  
  
"Well, I used to."  
  
"It must be contageous, because everybody else did it too." said Patamon, pointing to  
  
there companions, sprawled all over the floor.  
  
"OW!" shreeked Mimi as she dislodged her self from under one of the benches.  
  
"Double OW!" added Palmon as Mimi poped out, and tumbled straight into her.  
  
"What the heck happened?" asked Gomamon.  
  
"I have no idea." said Sora, looking around to make sure evry one was all right.  
  
"Well, being knocked on our butts can raerly mean anything good." groaned Joe.  
  
"HEY! Where's Tai, Matt, and Izzy?" cried Sora from the front.  
  
"Isn't one of them on guard duity?" asked Joe.  
  
"Yeah, but it shouldn't take all three of them." pointed out Sora.  
  
"It would if there was a big horable monster out there stomping around and shaking  
  
things!" Mimi whined  
  
"Why did you have to say somthing like that?" whimpered Joe, scurrying under his seat  
  
"Couldn't you have suggested that they all were roasting marshmelows or somthing like that?"  
  
"I'm afraid that Mimi may be right;" said Byomon, heading for the door "and if she is,  
  
they'll need our help!"  
  
"Alright!" Shouted T.K "Let's get busy!"  
  
"I'll go," said Mimi reluctantly "but I would rather think that Joe's right."  
  
"Me too." concured Palmon.  
  
"In that case," called Joe from under the seat "I'll think I'm right too!"  
  
"Oh, no you won't!" shouted Gomamon as he draged Joe out to the door.  
  
"NO! WAIT! HOLD ON!" screamed Joe "I'LL GUARD THE TROLLEY! I'LL TAKE  
  
UP THE REAR! COME ON! Boy, for a little seal, you really are freakishly strong."  
  
"Thanks, but it doesn't take much to pull a string bean like you." Gomamon laughed.  
  
"Are you two done goofing around?" asked Sora stearnly.  
  
"Yeah, I suppose so." sighed Joe.  
  
"Well, OK Sora! Lead the way!" said Mimi, edging Sora towards the door.  
  
"ME?" Sora shrieked "Why should I go first?"  
  
"Well duh, somebody has to go first." Palmon pointed out.  
  
"I'll go!" T.K. volentiered.  
  
"NO!" every one else screamed in unison.  
  
"...or not." T.K. giggled.  
  
After a few more moments of squabling, it was desided that they would all go out at once,  
  
somthing quite dificult, given the relitively narrow doorway. Still, they all managed to squeze out,  
  
though they wound up in an unsightly pile on the ground afterwards. They quickly righted  
  
themselves...  
  
and froze at the sight of what had no doubt given them the jolt.  
  
"I still wish you were right, Joe." Mimi whispered.  
  
"Me too." Joe concured.  
  
Seadramon glaired downs at the teriffied figgures that had just emerged and laughed. Or,  
  
at least, made the closest aproxamation to a laugh it could muster.  
  
"Guys! Over here!" they heard Tai shout from the other side of the trolley.  
  
The others quickly scrambled back to find Tai, Izzy, Agumon, and Tentomon crouched in  
  
it's shadow.  
  
"What are you guys doing?" Sora asked franticaly.  
  
"Hidding!" Tentomon whimpered "What does it look like we're doing?"  
  
"That's a good plan." Joe said, joining them "I can hide, I'm good at hiding."  
  
"What do you mean, hidding?" shouted T.K. "You're supposed to be fighting that guy."  
  
"Hey, you wanna go up agaist that monster? Be my guest!" shouted Tai.  
  
"OK!" said T.K. as he ran back around.  
  
"WHA-? WAIT! I WAS JOKING!" Tai screaed as he ran after him  
  
"Well wait for me!" shouted Sora, running after them. Byomon strarted to run after her,  
  
but stoped and yelled at the others "Well? What are you waiting for?"  
  
Taking the hint, tey all got up and ran out to face seadramon.  
  
Although the island had stoped moving, it had goten too far away for Matt and Gabumon  
  
to see what was going on clearly. Still, they had seen seadramon very well. And when a series of  
  
bright flashes began to erupt through the fog, they knew full well what it ment.  
  
"Do you think they'll be alright?" Matt asked.  
  
"I don't know." Gabumon admited, worried "Seadramon's much more powerful than  
  
Kuagumon was."  
  
"And we don't have a cliff to knock this guy off." Matt comented.  
  
"OW! OW! OH THE PAIN!" Tentomon cried in aggony as Izzy and Joe dragged him  
  
inside the trolley to try and chip the layer of ice off his body  
  
"OOOoooohhhh...that was most  
  
unpleasant."  
  
"How, did it shoot ice like that?" Izy asked as he tried to hold the frantic digimon still.  
  
"AAAaahhh...that's one of Seadramon's attacks...OW! CARFUL JOE!"  
  
"Sorry," Joe grunted as he continued to chip at the ice "but we need to get this ice off or  
  
you might get frostbite."  
  
"F-F-FROSTBITE?" Tentomon whimpered, panicing.  
  
"Don't worry!" Joe assured him "If we just get it all off, you'll have nothing to worry  
  
about!"  
  
Tentomon callmed down some what at that and just laid back as Joe continued chipping.  
  
Izzy creaped over to Joe and whispered into his ear "Is he really going to be alright?"  
  
"How should I know?" Joe whispered back "I don't know how much cold a big bug can  
  
take. I was just trying to calm him down."  
  
Tai and Mimi dove back behind the trolley to avoid another blast of ice heading twards  
  
them.  
  
"OK, it's official, this sucks." Mimi whimpered as she peaked around to look out to  
  
where Palmon and the others were fighting. "Look at them! That big creep is baerly even noticing  
  
them!"  
  
"I know," said Tai angrilly "he's way to strong!"  
  
"Well what do we do?" asked Mimi, on the verge of tears.  
  
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" shouted Tai "I DON'T KNOW THESE THINGS!"  
  
"Well, that's not gonna help anybody!" cried Mimi "We gotta do somthing!"  
  
"I know..." agreed Tai as he watched Seadremon swat Agumon and Byomon to the  
  
ground with his tail "but what?"  
  
"Boom Buble!" Patamon shouted as he spit a hazy shockwave at Seadramon's head. It  
  
slamed into it's skin with a loud "Pow!", but seemed to make no difference to the huge creature.  
  
Instead, it simply glared at him.  
  
"Uhhh...." Patamon stuttered, fearfully "Sorry about that..."  
  
"What are you appologizing for Patatmon?" T.K. shouted, despite Sora's best attempts to  
  
shut him up "Cream that big lizzard!"  
  
"Whadda ya think I've been trying to do?" Patamon called as he flew as fast as he could  
  
back to the trolley.  
  
"This guy's just too big!" yelled Palmon as she tried to follow. Unfortunately, Seadramon  
  
got both of them with it's tail, and knocked them back out into the battlefield.  
  
"Oh, no! PALMON!" Mimi shrieked as Seadramon continued to swat the digimon  
  
around.  
  
"He's got them out numbered and there's only one of him!" Tai fummed to himself from  
  
his hiding place "There's got to be somthing we can do to help."  
  
Then Seadramon fired another blast onto the ground, covering evrything around the  
  
impact zone with a thick layer of ice. Suddenly, to his terror, Tai realized that Agumon was trapped  
  
in it.  
  
"Tai! HELP!!!" he shouted as he struggled to melt the ice holding his legs in place.  
  
"Hold on! I'm comming!" Tai yelled as he ran out.  
  
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!?" Mimi screamed as she grabed his arm "You can't go out there!"  
  
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Tai shot back as he pulled his arm lose "I can't just sit  
  
here!"  
  
Mimi started to answer, but stopped to think about it. Before she actually had a chance to  
  
respond, Tai ran out again, calling back "Don't worry! I'll be alright!"  
  
"...Good luck." Mimi half-whispered as she watched his head into he heat of the battle.  
  
When Tai got there, Agumon had managed to get his leg out, but was still to numb to  
  
move. "Hang on buddy, I gotcha!"  
  
"Thanks, Tai." Agumon whimpered as Tai ran back with him in his arms. As he ran for  
  
all he was worth to get into the trolley, another ice blast shot past them and came within inches of  
  
hitting them. Although noone noticed it, Tai's digivice suddenly glowed for a moment as the blast  
  
shot past.  
  
"Are you alright?" Izzy asked franticaly as Tai and Agumon dove in through the door.  
  
"Yeah, I think I'll be alright." Agumon said, rubbing his legs gingerly.  
  
"Man, this is not working." Tai panted as he sat down to catch his breath "We need to get  
  
a plan going."  
  
"Maybe if we flanked it in a two pronged attack?" Izzy offored.  
  
"If we who in a what-now?" Tai asked, lost.  
  
"Set up a crossfire." Izzy said in layman's terms.  
  
"But how?" Joe asked "We can't get off the island exept for Gomamon, and he can't do  
  
much by himself."  
  
"I'm working on that," Izzy said "be patient."  
  
"There's Gabumon and Matt." Tentomon said weakly from his seat.  
  
"I think they're too far away." Izzy said "How would they get out here?"  
  
"I got it!" Tai shouted, rummiging though the emergency compartment and comming up  
  
with an inflateable emergency raft "Come on Agumon!"  
  
"What are you talking about?" Joe shouted "He can barely walk!"  
  
"He dosen't have to walk! He just has to ride!"  
  
"I'm with you Tai!" Agumon said as he climed on to the package in his arms.  
  
"Time to hit the high seas!" Tai shouted as he ran out the back door.  
  
"Wait a minute!" Izzy yelled to them "What are you going to do once you get out there?"  
  
But they were already gone.  
  
Matt looked out through the fog to the battle continuing in the distance. It was impossable  
  
to tell for sertain, but Matt had a huntch that thing were not going well. The flashes from the island  
  
had been getting fewer and farhter between for some time. Matt hadn't said anything for a few  
  
minutes, but Gabumon could tell that he was getting more and more worried as time went on.  
  
Suddenly, a flash shot out from behind Seadramon.  
  
"What was that?" Matt shouted.  
  
"Somthing atacked Seadramon from behind!" Gabumon shouted.  
  
"Behind? How could somthing get behnid it?" Matt asked as another yellowish orange  
  
blast shot up from the water.  
  
"Who would-" wait. Matt thought: That blast looked like fire. Fire? Agumon!  
  
"TAI, ARE YOU INSANE?!?!?" Matt screamed from the shore.  
  
Agumon tried as hard as he could to get his arms around his bulky life jacket and grip the  
  
side of the raft, with little avail.  
  
"Why do only I have to wear one of these things?" he whined.  
  
"Because there was only one life jacket on this seven person raft, for who knows why."  
  
explained Tai as he tried valiantly to paddle the raft "You can't swim with those numb legs."  
  
Agumon fired another shot at Seadramon before asking "So what's the plan?"  
  
"Well, this is pretty much it." Tai grunted, in the middle of a particularly hard paddle.  
  
"WHAT????"  
  
"Well, I hoped that once we got out in the water, inspiration would strike."  
  
"Well, I hope it strikes fast!" Agumon said, watching Seadramon frantically trying to find  
  
them through the fog.  
  
"I have worked out one thing." Tai pointed out "If we get knocked over, you get back to  
  
the island."  
  
"Well, duh." said Agumon, shaking his head "That's what I would do anyway, and I  
  
hope you would too."  
  
The words had barely left his mouth when Seadramon's tail shot up from directly under  
  
the raft; flipping it roughly ten feet in the air.  
  
Although they were still some distance away, the raft was close enough to Matt and  
  
Gabumon for them to plainly see it flip over.  
  
"WHOA!" Matt shouted as he watched the raft flip through the air.  
  
"Are they all right?" Gabumon asked frantically.  
  
"I-I can't tell yet." Matt confessed, trying as hard as he could to see through the fog.  
  
"WOW! This water's COLD!" cried Agumon as he bobbed up and down in the lake.  
  
"What are you waiting for Agumon?" shouted Tai as he swam off "Get back to the  
  
island!"  
  
"What about you?" yelled Agumon as he watched Tai swim into the opposite direction.  
  
"HEY!" Tai screamed at Seadramon "OVER HERE YOU OVER GROWN  
  
TADPOLE!!!!!!"  
  
"What are you doing, Tai?" Agumon cried.  
  
"Buying you some time!" Tai shouted back "You can't do any good bobbing around  
  
like...like...I dunno, I'm to busy to come up with something."  
  
"TAI! LOOK OUT!!!" Agumon screamed as Seadramon's tail slammed down right next to  
  
him.  
  
"Matt! Where are you going?" Gabumon shouted as Matt dove into the water.  
  
"Well, I'm sure not going to just sit here while that big sea slug eats him." Matt shouted,  
  
swimming off.  
  
Gabumon hesitated for a moment before crying "I hope you realize what my fur will  
  
smell like when I get out!" and dove in after him.  
  
"Hey! Put me down!" shouted Tai as Seadramon wrapped it's tail around him "Hey, come  
  
on! Can't we work something out? I was just joking with the tadpole bit!!!"  
  
While he wasn't  
  
looking, his digivice had begun to glow again, and was now starting to vibrate.  
  
"HANG ON TAI!!!" Matt shouted as he got closer and closer to the giant sea serpent.  
  
"Matt? What are you doing here?" Tai shouted.  
  
"Oh, you're welcome." Matt grunted as he climbed onto Seadramon's back.  
  
"OK, Thanks!" Tai yelled "Now what are you going to do?"  
  
"I dunno, I'm making this thing up as I go!"  
  
"Where have I heard that before?" Tai sighed, preparing himself to be eaten.  
  
Matt started to claw his way up Seadramon's rough, scaly hide with the vague idea of  
  
hitting it in the eye, when he noticed something bizarre. Not far above him, sticking out of it's  
  
side, was what appeared to be a large black wheel. Climbing higher up, he saw it was indeed some  
  
kind of disk, with sharp teeth on the sides, imbedded in the skin of the monster. Not having any  
  
better idea, he grabbed onto it with both hands. Immediately, Seadramon let out a bone shilling  
  
shriek, and arched it's body violently, dropping Tai in the process. Both he and Matt slid down the  
  
creature's back and collided with each other in the middle.  
  
"Fancy meeting you here." Tai as he rolled off of Matt "You come here often?"  
  
"Nope," Matt played along "I was just in town for the weekend and thought I'd poke my  
  
head in."  
  
The two hopped off the thrashing monster's back and were greeted by Gabumon. "Have  
  
fun you two?" he asked.  
  
"Plenty;" Matt panted, as he started to swim off "you should have been there."  
  
"I would have," Gabumon said, struggling to tread water "but I was busy learning how to  
  
swim."  
  
"I hate to break this up," shouted Tai "but somebody's majorly ticked!"  
  
Sure enough, Seadramon had swung around and was coming at them with a fiery rage in  
  
it's eyes.  
  
"Quick! how fast can you swim!" Matt asked.  
  
"Not that fast!" Tai shouted as Seadramon literally fell on top of them. While the force of  
  
Seadramon's wake would have pushed them well out of it's way if it had the chance, Seadramon  
  
didn't plan on allowing it to get that chance. It whipped it's tail through the water with blinding  
  
speed, collecting Matt and Tai in the process.  
  
"Hey, I remember this place!" Tai grunted sarcastically "Not as nice as it was the last time  
  
I was here."  
  
"Don't worry, I don't think he's planning on keeping us here long!" Matt shouted as  
  
Seadramon glared at them hungrily.  
  
"MATT!" Gabumon shouted from below.  
  
"Gabumon! DO SOMTHING!" Matt yelled.  
  
"I can't!" Gabumon shouted back "I'm not strong enough!"  
  
"Maybe the two of us are!" Agumon shouted from the other side of Seadramon.  
  
"AGUMON?!?!?" Tai shouted "I thought I told you to get back to shore!"  
  
"Sorry, but NO!" Agumon replied forcefully.  
  
"Well, I'm glad you're here!" Matt shouted "DO SOMTHING!!!"  
  
Instead of answering Agmon fired another fireball at Seadramon's head, accompanied by  
  
a blast from Gabumon. Although Seadramon lurched back, it was obviously not hurt.  
  
"You got anything else?" Tai shouted.  
  
"Sorry!" Gabumon answered, remorsefully.  
  
Now even more angered, Seadramon tightened it's grip on it's two captives.  
  
"Tai! Matt!" Agumon shouted "Look at your digivices!"  
  
They looked down and, while the couldn't actually see the devices because of  
  
Seadramon's tail, they could see a bright light pouring out of each of them.  
  
"Wha-What's going on?" Matt shouted.  
  
"The digivices!" Gabumon cried "USE THEM!!!"  
  
"HOW?" Matt and Tai asked in unison.  
  
Before anyone had a chance to answer, Seadramon opened it's massive jaws and thrust  
  
it's tail up towards it. Before it had a chance to snack, however, something incredible happened.  
  
In a blinding flash, erupted from the two digivices. Two huge, blue white shot out of  
  
them and sliced through Seadramon's tail. As it howled in pain and dropped the two would-be  
  
morsels, the beams struck and engulfed Agumon and Gabumon. In the blinding flashes that  
  
resulted, no one could see what exactly had happened; but there was no question about it  
  
afterwards:  
  
They had once again digivolved.  
  
In the place of Agumon was a towering, red and brown striped dinosaur they would latter  
  
discover was called Greymon. Instead of Gabumon, they found a equally huge white and gray  
  
wolf who, as it turned out, was called Garurumon. The two shell shocked kids looked in  
  
amazement at the new, giant digimon as Seadramon, it self even more shell shocked, tried to back  
  
away.  
  
"Just where do you think you're going, buddy?" Greymon growled as he waded up next  
  
to it.  
  
"You ready to rumble, Greymon?" Garurumon shouted.  
  
"I've been ready!" Greymon yelled as he leapt onto Seadramon. The two only managed to  
  
hold the serpent down for a moment before in slithered out of their grip, but it was long enough for  
  
Garurumon to shout to Matt and Tai "What are you two waiting for? Get out of here!"  
  
Not waiting to be told a second time, the two immediately swam off for the island.  
  
"Try to go for that gear sticking out of it's side!" Matt shouted as he swam out  
  
"I think  
  
that's a soft spot!"  
  
Seadramon, must have thought so too, because instead of rising all the way out again, it  
  
simply swung it's tail out of the water and swatted Greymon in the head. However, instead of  
  
falling over, Greymon simply grabbed on and gave a tug. Seadramon flew, backwards, out of the  
  
water as Garurumon took the opportune chance to fire a huge, blue laser out of it's mouth and take  
  
a small chunk out of it's side.  
  
"Tai! Matt! Are you all right?" Sora shouted as she and Izzy helped fish them out of the  
  
water.  
  
"WOW!" cried T.K. as he ran up to Matt "That was SO COOL! You just climbed right  
  
onto that big freak and grabbed onto him and-"  
  
"Yeah, T.K., I was there," Matt panted as he tried to catch his breath "and don't need to  
  
be reminded about it right now."  
  
"Are they going to be all right?" Izzy asked Tentomon, who had, against Joe's strong  
  
protest, limped out to see what was happening.  
  
"Are you kidding?" he laughed "Seadramon doesn't stand a chance against Greymon and  
  
Garurumon!"  
  
"So, uh, what can they do, exactly?" Tai asked.  
  
"What can't they do?" Tentomon laughed again "Greymon can use the "Nova Blast"  
  
attack which is so hot it can melt solid iron! And Garurumon is just as powerful! Not only is he  
  
strong and fast as heck, but his fur is as hard as steel!"  
  
"Just like Tentomon shell is as hard as diamond?" Joe asked incredulously, pointing at the  
  
small cracks left in on the back of Tentomon's "impenetrable" back.  
  
"OK, I may have over estimated my own strengths a little, but I heard about this!  
  
REALY!" Tentomon insisted.  
  
Seadramon wrestled with all it's might to get out of Greymon's iron grip, with no avail.  
  
"Do you see the gear Matt was talking about?" he grunted.  
  
"Not yet." Garurumon said, annoyed "Could you hold him still? How am I supposed to  
  
find anything on this guy?"  
  
"Hey!" Greymon shouted "You wanna be the one to hold the squirming sea dragon still?  
  
Be my guest!"  
  
"Quit whining! I didn't-WAIT! There it is!" and with that, Garurumon let lose a massive  
  
blast which struck just aside from the protruding gear. Seadramon again lurched in pain, wresting  
  
itself out of Greymon's grasp in the process.  
  
"You're not getting away that easy! Nova Blast!" Greymon shouted as he fired a gigantic  
  
fireball into Seadramon's head. The huge serpent reeled with the impact as Garurumon again  
  
lunged at it's side. He wrapped his paws around the squirming beast and, finding the damaged  
  
gear once again, sunk his teeth into it. Seadramon screeched in unbelievable agony as Garurumon  
  
tugged at the gear.  
  
"HOLD HIM STILL WILL YOU?" Garurumon grunted with a mouth full of gear.  
  
"I'm trying!" Greymon yelled as he sunk his teeth into Seadramon's neck. While it didn't  
  
exactly pacify the raging beast, it did hold him down while Garurumon tugged.  
  
"Hurry up!" shouted Greymon "This guy's scales taste horrible!"  
  
"Well this gear isn't exactly a banquet either!" Garurumon shot back "It just won't come  
  
out!"  
  
But almost before the words had escaped from his mouth, the gear shattered like glass and  
  
vanished. Giving a horrendous spasm accompanied with another agonizing scream, Seadramon  
  
leapt out of the other two digimon's grasp and vanished into the deep.  
  
To Be Continued... 


	4. Alone Again, Naturally

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Everyday in the week I'm in a different city,  
  
And, if I stay too long, people try to pull me down.  
  
They talk about me like a dog,  
  
Talkin `bout the clothes I wear.  
  
But they don't realize they're the ones who're square  
  
And that's why you can't hold me down,  
  
I won't go down  
  
I gotta move  
  
Hey!  
  
Stone Free, to do what I please  
  
Stone Free, to ride the breeze  
  
Stone Free, I can't stay  
  
Got to, got to, got to get away!  
  
Woman here, woman there tryin' to keep me in a plastic cage.  
  
But they don't realize it's so easy to break.  
  
But sometimes I get, uh hot!  
  
Feel my heart runnin' hot,  
  
That's when I got to move before I get caught.  
  
And that's why, you can't hold me down.  
  
I don't wanna be tied down,  
  
I gotta move on. Hey!  
  
Stone Free, to do what I please  
  
Stone Free, to ride the breeze  
  
Stone Free, I can't stay  
  
Got to, got to, got to get away!  
  
Stone Free, to ride the breeze  
  
Stone Free, to do what I please  
  
Stone Free, I can't stay  
  
Stone Free, I got to, got to get away!  
  
Stone Free, movin' on down the highway  
  
Stone Free, don't try to hold me back, baby  
  
Stone Free, oh yeah, baby  
  
Stone Free, got to, got to get away  
  
Stone Free, goodbye, baby.  
  
"Stone Free"  
  
By Jimi Hendrix  
  
From the album Are You Experienced?  
  
Chapter four:  
  
Alone again, naturally  
  
Leomon couldn't tell if his captors thought he was still unconscious or if they were simply stupid. Either way, they had been loudly discussing their business in front him for some time without thinking much of it. Of course, given his helpless state, Leomon could hardly have done anything if he knew every detail of their plains; which he didn't. Yet. Still, even as he was being trucked along in a cart by the two Monochromon, Leomon had found a reason to be happy.  
  
He had been able to save the Digidestined.  
  
Or, at least, he'd helped them. From what he'd overheard from the two Monochromon, the Digidestined had been victorious over Seadramon, but it was a very close battle. One they'd nearly lost. If they had only barely defeated the one Seadramon, then they would certainly have never been able to stand against three. Fortunately, Leomon had been able to insure that two of the would be attackers never troubled the Digidestined. He wasn't the least bit upset that they would probably never know how he'd helped them. While he couldn't lift his head above the mangled boards that made up the cart, he could see well enough through the cracks to know where they were headed. The trail they were now on was the treacherous route that would lead them up, in, and later down, the labyrinth that was Infinity Mountain. Straight into the lair of Devimon.  
  
No, the Digidestined would probably never know.  
  
After what had seemed like an eternity, the cart had reached it's destination: a terrifyingly huge opening in one of the cave walls. While obviously a natural formation, a number of tricks with light (what little there was) and shadow (which was much more plentiful) created the astonishingly convincing impression of a huge mouth, waiting to devour it's prey. Leomon, looking at it with blurred eyes, doubted the effect was as innocent as others would have assumed. Anyone who'd had the "pleasure" of meeting the occupants of the fortresses beyond it would remark that the impression was a perfect representation of what laid ahead. It was there that two Mekanorimon approached the cart and relieved it of it's increasingly groggy passenger.  
  
It was all Leomon could do to keep his head up as the Mekanorimon dragged him down the dank, dimly lit corridor. He used every technique he could recall to heal his injuries and purge his body of the viruses that had infected him, but his chains had been designed to keep depositing more into his system, so he met with little success. The charming atmosphere of his surroundings did little to help Leomon out of his sloth. The first, last, and only color he'd seen sense entering Infinity Mountain was black; the most loathsum shade Leomon had ever encountered. He hadn't thought it would be possible for anything to be so dark.  
  
But, then, he'd never been here before either.  
  
Here, the black was far more than a color on the walls, it was the walls. It was the entire corridor. It was the air. It was every smell, taste, touch and sound that existed in this hell. All this engulfing blackness surrounded Leomon. It pressed on top of him. It crushed him from all sides. It tried, with admiral resolve, to suffocate him. How Leomon had even managed to survive the arduous trip down the maze of never ending corridors was a mystery even to him. But some how, there he was, looking at the unimaginably huge and ordinate doors of Devimon's chambers.  
  
The gates, it seemed, of Hell it self.  
  
The spacious throne room on the other side of the monstrous doors was far more elaborate than the crude crypts he'd just been dragged through. That cursed black was still ever present, however. All the walls were covered in intricate carvings depicting horrific, unspeakable acts of torture and violence. No doubt Devimon has had great practice in all of these Leomon thought to him self. The rest of the outer perimeter of the room was filled with multiple rows of columns, far more than the room actually needed. The columns all stopped at a sudden dip in the floor, leaving a patch of open space in the center in front of the room's main feature. On the wall opposite of Leomon, unobstructed by columns, was the giant carving of a demon's head; not actually of Devimon, but there was a resemblance. The orifice's jaw drooped unrealistically so that it hit the floor and expanded into a large basin in which a large fire was providing light for the room.  
  
Well, "providing light" in a manner of speaking, the darkness engulfing the entire catacomb was even more oppressing here. But then, what else could you expect from the dwelling place of a being such as Devimon?  
  
"Hey, hey, hey! If it isn't the great Leomon! Champion of all that is good, warm, and fuzzy!" Leomon heard from behind him. He swung his head around as far as he could, which wasn't any where near far enough to see behind him. Not that he needed to, anyway; Leomon would recognize that despicable gurgle of a voice any day.  
  
"What are you doing here Ogermon?" he demanded.  
  
"Listen to you," Ogermon laughed, or, more accurately, belched "even when you're being dragged around like a bag full of horse plop, you still talk like you're all that."  
  
As he spoke, Ogermon walked around Leomon so he could see him. Even in this suffocating darkness, Ogermon was hideous. His skin was a crawling mess of wounds and pulsing veins hidden under a vile film of dirt and puss. His jaw drooped so low that he couldn't have closed it if he wanted too. As a result, he had to form all his words with his giant, boil covered tongue. Ogermon's horrendous looks alone were more than enough to fend off most digimon, but he also had a giant, crusted bone club to take care of the really tenacious ones.  
  
"You didn't answer me." Leomon growled as Ogermon playfully poked Leomon with his club.  
  
"I work here, stupid." Ogermon laughed again "Whadja expect?"  
  
"I don't see any gears on you." Leomon commented, weakly.  
  
"Oh! Been checkin' me out, huh?" Ogermon snickered as he struck a ridiculous, modeling pose "Well look all you want, `cause you won't find any gears on this gorgeous bod'! Those things may make you all stronger and stuff, but the also make you slow as crap and just as stupid." As Ogermon said this, he rapped one of the Mekanorimon on the head with his cub to illustrate his point. Like a statue, it simply starred straight ahead.  
  
"See what I mean? So, anyway, I convinced ol' Devi that it would be a crime to make a champ like me into one of these basket cases, so now I just work for him straight up."  
  
Leomon shook his head; not really surprised, but disgusted none the less. "Just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower" he growled weakly but ferociously  
  
"you knowingly and willfully align yourself with the beast that has been laying waste to this Island-"  
  
"Yeah, but he's winning!" Ogermon interrupted "I don't care what happens to this dump, if I'm chummy with the guy in charge, well, that's all I need to be set for life!"  
  
"You disgust me." Leomon snarled.  
  
"And I wouldn't have any other way, big guy!"  
  
Ogermon would have gladly mocked longer, but a sudden chill sweeping the room brought him to a halt. "Well, it looks like the big guy's almost here!" he snorted before shouting to the Mekanorimon "What are you tin idiots waiting for? Make him kneel!" The Mekanorimon quickly complied, dropping Leomon to his knees and holding his head down, with far more force than would have been needed.  
  
Devimon's presence was undeniable long before he was actually there. First and foremost was the stench. Far more than just a vile scent, one could almost taste the death that reeked from the beast. A ghastly, disgusting odder that a million wormy, rotten corpses couldn't produce, yet Devimon put it off naturally. Even if his mind had been clear, Leomon would have been unsettled by it. However, his mind was far from clear, and what he felt went far beyond "unsettled". He could feel panic's withered tendrils crawling up through him, penetrating him as hard as that wretched stench. Leomon fought, with only partial success, to hide his terror as the fire at the far end of the room turned to a ghastly blue. Because the Mekanorimon were holding his head down, he couldn't actually see him (or, more accurately, it) but he could see Devimon's gaunt shadow clearly on the chamber's floor. His/it's already disproportionate frame cast an even more ill-proportioned shadow; the ridiculously long arms and bony, multi-jointed fingers seemed to stretch for miles across the stone floor. His/it's gigantic, raged wings seemed to be worlds across; the ragged, wormy holes appeared as islands on the infinitely black sea of Devimon's shadow. He/it seemed to take a step forward as he/it spoke: "Greetings, oh great Leomon. You honor us with your presence."  
  
Devimon had no voice as we have come to think of them. He/it "spoke" with a blood curdling hiss, almost a whistle. It sounded like a million dying voices letting out their final breaths before slipping into the great beyond. "After all this time of pestering each other, I relish the opportunity to meet face to face."  
  
Leomon could have pointed out that, thanks to his escorts, neither of them could actually see the other's face, but he didn't feel like it.  
  
"Ok, boss" Ogermon bellowed "What'll it be? Decapitation? Skinning? Oh! Maybe we can take him apart and see if we can put him back together!" Ogermon waited eagerly for Devimon's response, but received only an awkward silence.  
  
"Well, OK," Ogermon said, unsteadily "How do you wanna do him in?"  
  
"We're not, you thundering moron." Devimon hissed "Our friend will be a great asset to me."  
  
"Wha-wha-WHAT?!?!?" Ogermon stuttered "You don't actually mean I'm gonna have to work on the same side as goody-goody face?"  
  
"You will work with whomever I tell you to, you wretched intestinal parasite!" Devimon shrieked with an unexpected intensity "I cannot afford to waste this opportunity. Not with these children here now."  
  
"You're a fool if you actually think that anything, even me, could stand a chance of standing against the will of the digidestined." Leomon whispered, not out of a will to be quiet, but because he couldn't spare the energy to muster anything louder.  
  
"They certainly didn't do much to justify your faith in there encounter with Seadramon." Devimon snickered "If they did so poorly against that weakling, what possible chance could they have against a battle hardened warrior like you?"  
  
The same question had raced through Leomon's mind a million times on the trip down. He had worked everything with every possible out come he could think of. He was quite displeased with the results. Now matter how he played it out, he always got to the same answer: the Digidestined were still too weak. In time, they could become strong enough, but they had some ways to go.  
  
A ways the would never have the chance to go if Devimon siced Leomon on them. Only one way out presented itself.  
  
"I'd sooner die than help you." Leomon growled, weaker than he'd hoped.  
  
"You seem to have the misguided impression that you have a choice in the matter." Devimon smirked.  
  
"I do." Leomon whispered "More so than you could possibly imagine."  
  
Over the years, Leomon had mastered an unimaginable number of attacks. Many of which, he supposedly had been incapable of, ether because the were supposedly outside his type, or beyond his level; but he had mastered them anyway. His arsenal was, most likely, more varied than any other digimon on the island; maybe in existence. However, Leomon's training over the years had stretched far beyond simply mastering the attacks of other digimon, he had delved deep into techniques that had been lost over the ages. Methods of attack that, most likely, hadn't been attempted sense the dawn of the digital world. Centarumon and Unimon had been aware of them, and they had been quite displeased at Leomon's intent to resurrect them; "you cannot possibly understand the implications of the power you seek, Leomon." Centarumon had told him "There has never been good in them. Only evil and destruction." They had been able to dissuade him at the time, but then Devimon came. If the powers his masters had cherished couldn't fend him off, only those they loathed were left. Thus, Leomon had educated himself in ways of attack that stretched far beyond what most digimon had ever dreamed possible. They certainly weren't known to the two Mekanorimon who, in the blinding flash that erupted from deep within Leomon, were whipped form existence in a moment. The light from this blast of power had yet to disperse when Leomon prepared to do what his masters had tried so hard to keep him from knowing was possible. The ancient digimon masters who first documented the attack never bothered to give it a name. No name in existing language could ever have fully grasped the nature of it, anyway. I, at least, find myself at a loss for words as I attempt to put it's effects into terms within human comprehension. It is simply too far removed from what we would consider normal. The best way I can put it is: Leomon, or the essence that was Leomon (as I said, it's extremely odd) would, in layman's terms, go off like a stick of dynamite. Leomon enveloped himself in a Sheath of light as he prepared to unleash this nameless, suicidal attack.. He hoped that Devimon wouldn't survive the attack, though it was likely that he'd only be injured. Ogermon probably wouldn't survive. Leomon definitely wouldn't, as there wouldn't be a Leomon to survive in the aftermath. Not that that troubled him. Don't worry, children was the only thought in Leomon's mind I'll protect you.  
  
He never saw the black gear streaking with blinding speed from behind him.  
  
He didn't become aware of it at all until he felt it burrowing into his skin.  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER********************/P  
  
With a chilling call, Birdramon soared in a circle through the desert sky. Down below, Sora stood in silent awe of this giant phoenix that only minutes ago had been little Biyomon. Myramon was far less impressed.  
  
"Come on, squawks!" he grunted through the fetid stitches that held his mouth shut "You think that just because you're up there, I can't knock you silly?"  
  
"I'd love to see you try it, pal!" Bridramon bellowed.  
  
Myramon proved more than eager to take Birdramon up on her offer, letting lose a huge ball of fire form his flaming hands. Despite her impressive size, Birdramon artfully dodged the blast and, with a flap of her flaming wings, showered her devilish attacker with a storm of embers. While a remarkable spectacle, the attack had absolutely no effect on Myramon. Instead, the embers vanished into the walking flame that was his body like a drop of rain disappears into the ocean.  
  
From the bough of the rusting hull that at one point had been a ship, Matt, despite his best attempts to the contrary, couldn't help but scoff at the ridiculous match up.  
  
"So, you're going to burn a walking flame to death?" he snickered "That's like trying to drown a fish."  
  
"Actually, you can do that if you can get them to stop moving" Izzy pointed out from behind.  
  
"You know what I meant." groaned Matt; didn't this kid have any sense of humor?  
  
"He's right!" Gomamon chimed in "I knew a mackerel that nearly checked out that way! See, he had some of those tennis shoes that you pump up (don't ask me why he had tennis shoes, he just did) so he's pumping them up, see, and-"  
  
"ALL RIGHT! Shut up all ready!" Matt growled at the little, white seal.  
  
"Why don't you shut up, smart guy?" Tai yelled while nursing Agumon's injuries.  
  
"Gladly." Matt said as he turned his attentions to Garurumon down below  
  
"Ready to show these losers how it's done?" he called from the bent railings.  
  
"Just say when." Garurumon shouted up from the muddy ground.  
  
"Give `em hell!" Matt shouted, waving Garurumon off. As the giant wolf dashed into the melee, Matt added "And don't screw up like Greymon!"  
  
"Hey!" Tai shouted back "Lay off him! Greymon tried his best!"  
  
"Fat lot of good it did, too." Matt said, pointing to the many burns across Agumon's body "Call me stupid, but I don't see how body slamming a walking bonfire can, at any point, seem like a good idea."  
  
Rather than try to argue the point (as he had been thinking the same things himself) Tai just said "You don't have to remind me to call you stupid."  
  
If there was anything Garurumon did, "screw up" wasn't one of them. He flew like a white streak of lightning over Myramon's head; not hitting him, but throwing off balance. Myramon was still stumbling to regain his footing when Garurumon darted around and let loose "Howling Blaster!", a thunderous, blue stream of energy that tore through the air, hitting Myramon square in the face. He stumbled tail over teakettle through the dirt before the brunt of the blast had even had a chance to pay the smoldering monstrosity a visit. The clumsy (if imposing) lummox scrambled madly to stop himself before he rolled off the shear cliff that, only minutes ago, had been the lake's shore. He succeeded, teetering on the edge perhaps, but he'd stopped.  
  
"AH HA!" Myrimon laughed as he got up, cautiously "In your face, you flea bitten mutt! And tell it to that buck toothed canary friend of yours, too!"  
  
"Say that again." Birdramon growled from behind (through her "buck teeth") as she slowly rose up from the dried lake basin.  
  
If Myramon could have sweat without putting himself out, he would definitely have been doing it as he spun around with a start to face Birdramon.  
  
"Uh..well..." He sputtered after an awkward silence.  
  
"Say it again!" Birdramon bellowed.  
  
"Uh, well, I don't think I can." Myramon began, throwing up a snow job at a rapid pace "Ya see sometimes you know a guy like me all ways getting like caught up in the moment you know see I start saying things and you know sometimes my mouth kinda has a mind of it's own see and that's why I got it stitched up so see like I didn't really mean that the way it sounded and by the way I really think your teeth are beautiful and so are your friends if that's what you think and... I'm boned aren't I?"  
  
"Oh yeah." Birdramon smirked as she grabbed him in her frightful talons.  
  
"HEY! Come on! Put me down! Let me go!" Myramon cursed as Birdramon carried him up into the sky.  
  
"What was that?" she asked with a wicked glint in her eye.  
  
"I could be wrong," Garurumon shouted, knowing fully what Bridramon had in mind "but I think he wants you to let go!"  
  
"NONONONONO!!!!" Myramon shrieked, realizing his mistake "I like it up here! The view's great, and I can use the frequent flier miles!"  
  
"Too late pal!" Birdramon bellowed "This is where you get off!"  
  
It was a long way down. A very long way down. I'm talking "long as the line of passengers waiting for a plane at Hartsfield-Atlanta International Airport" long, OK? And Myramon would easily have screamed the whole way down, had he gotten the chance. Unfortunately (for him, I guess) Garurumon had other plans and showed him what wonderful stuff he'd missed when he fell out of that first blast. From below, Garurumon unleashed another Howling Blaster at the collapsing campfire, knocking him a good distance beyond anyone's view.  
  
Although he was going to fast for anyone to tell for sure, several of the spectators down below could have sworn that they saw the pieces of something black falling from him.  
  
It took about half an hour of walking to find where Myramon had landed. Under normal circumstances, a fall like that would have done the fellow in. Fortunately (I suppose, read on), he landed on top of an unusually high concentration of the telegraph poles that sprouted up throughout the Yokomon desert (though the poles no doubt contributed a good bit of damage themselves). Myramon was unable to give any explanation on his sudden anti- social activity (evaporating all of Sunken Lake, trying to burn down Yokomon Village, turning down his invitation to the Annual Yokomon Pudding Fest but showing up anyway and taking some one else's seat); all he could remember was an unsettling humming sound, something hitting him in the back, and something about a big, angry thing that had bucked teeth. Not wanting to risk encouraging the fiery fellow, they decided to feign ignorance concerning the mysterious buck toothed thing and sent Myramon on his way.  
  
Back at the Village, Biyomon found herself nothing short of a living legend. A Yokomon that had digivolved at all was something remarkable in it's self to the villagers; but digivolving to Birdramon? Most of them had never even heard off anything like that.  
  
The sea of little Yokomon crowded around Biyomon like something out of a Beatles documentary; all the while bombarding her with questions.  
  
"What's it like to fly like that? The Village Elders have told me about it, but they've never flown that high!"  
  
"Did you get hot while you were on fire?"  
  
"What was that attack you used called?"  
  
"Did it hurt when you held Myramon in your claws?"  
  
"How did you talk with all those teeth?"  
  
"If you had a choice, would you rather be chased by Tyranomon or Rockmon?"  
  
"Do you like Wild Cherry Pepsi? I do!"  
  
"If you could go on a date with any one, who would it be?"  
  
"What's the maximum number of electrons in one energy? I have a chemistry test tomorrow, so I really need to know!"  
  
"What are hot dogs made of?"  
  
"Have you ever eaten a bug?"  
  
I couldn't tell you where the bug question came from (probably Gomamon), but it came right after the hot dog question, and the easily imagined connection between the two subjects made everybody stop and laugh for a moment. Leaping on the momentary laps of chatter, Biyomon decided to tackle the most common question she'd been getting:  
  
"How did you digivolve?"  
  
"Attention! Everyone!" Biyomon shouted over the squeaking buzz of the Yokomon around her "You all seem to have a lot of questions." (a master of understatement, that Biyomon) "Most of all, you seem to be curious about how I digivolved today. I'm not sure how much help I can be, but I'll do my best to answer your questions if you'll all calm down!"  
  
But calming down was the last thing on the Yokomon's mind. Just the sound of her voice seemed to wind the little digimon up even more. Off to the side, Sora was getting concerned. At first, she'd tried to remove herself, not wanting to intrude on Biyomon's fifteen minutes of fame. Now, however, she was beginning to fear for Biyomon's safety. The Yokomon may not have been the most powerful digimon, but herd mentality could do some wild things to people. Sora had seen Tai once on his way back from a monster truck rally and he'd looked like he'd been put through a meat grinder.  
  
"Uh, guys?" she shouted to the pulsing, pink mob "Could you calm down please?"  
  
No effect.  
  
"No really. I really need you all to calm down for a minute."  
  
She could have been shouting to a waterfall to shut up and she would have gotten better results.  
  
"Will you all please BE QUIET?"  
  
Like water of a duck's back.  
  
Sora look helplessly around her for some help and found Mimi.  
  
"Mimi? A little help, please?"  
  
"No problem!" Mimi chimed happily as she sauntered over to the herd of Yokomon. Once at the edge of the mob, she stopped, shut her eyes, took a long, deep breath...and unleashed the most ear shattering shriek this side of Yoko Ono.  
  
"HHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
There probably wasn't anything within ten miles that didn't freeze for a moment to find out what had just happened. There certainly wasn't anything in the Yokomon Village that didn't.  
  
"That's better!" Mimi chimed happily, like nothing had happened "Biyomon will be more than happy to answer all your questions, but first, she needs you all to calm down so she can think, `kay?"  
  
The Yokomon were still starring, more than a little shell shocked, when Mimi stopped. Sora, trying to knock the ringing out of her ears, said "Whoa...where did you learn to do that?"  
  
"Oh, that?" Mimi giggled innocently "My little brother can be a handful sometimes. Plus, my mom baby-sits for our neighbors and those kids can get pretty rowdy sometimes, so I've had plenty of practice."  
  
"Well, the practice sure paid off..." Sora commented, in awe of the pacified crowd.  
  
"Oh, that's nothing;" Mimi laughed "I've shut up whole preschools before."  
  
"Uh...thank you Mimi!" Biyomon shouted, a little dazed "Anyway, as I was saying, I can't really tell you a whole lot about how I digivolved, but I'm more than happy to share what I do know. As you all know, Sora was out trying to help all of you Yokomon into the ship hull before Myramon got here while I was out with the others trying to hold him off. When he broke through and started heading for Sora, I just had to protect her. I was flying as fast as I could to catch up with him when this surge of power washed through me, and the next thing I knew, I was Birdramon!" suddenly Biyomon began to look embarrassed "I'm sorry," she apologized "that didn't explain much of anything, did it?"  
  
"Actually, It may have." Izzy piped up from behind Sora, giving her a bit of a start (he'd been so quiet, she hadn't even realized he was there) "You digivolved at a moment when Sora's life was in danger. Now, the first time any of us ever saw you digivolve was when Kuagumon attacked us. Since then, I've seen four other instances of digivolving: Agumon and Gabumon's digivolving in our encounter with Seadramon, and again when we tried to hold Myramon off at the ship. In both instances, Tai and Matt were in equally perilous situations."  
  
"OH! I see where you're going!" Tentomon interrupted "We've always digivolved when our partners were in jeopardy!"  
  
"That it the point I was planing to make, yes." Izzy agreed "Although I would have appreciated it if you had allowed me to finish saying it."  
  
"Oops." Tentomon blurted, sheepishly "I'm sorry. I suppose I got a little caught up in the moment."  
  
"Well that may have cleared up the why," Tai shouted from behind the others where he was sitting on top of one of the Yokomon's huts (it was about the size of a foot stool to him) "but you still didn't explain how."  
  
"Well, I can't say this with complete certainty," Izzy said, fishing his digivice out of his pocket "but it would seem that the answer lies with these."  
  
"Bua-wha-I-" Tentomon sputtered, exasperated "I've been telling you that for days now!"  
  
"Yes, but, frankly, you never made any sense" Izzy explained "seeing how you couldn't tell us how we operated them."  
  
"So, what did we do?" Matt spoke up.  
  
"I'm not sure we did anything." Izzy continued "When Myramon tried to jump onto the ship, I could see two beams of light shoot from you and Tai's pockets and strike Agumon and Gabumon just before they digivolved. Now I assume you two have your digivices in your pockets?" when Izzy saw both of them nod, he continued "All right then. I believe that, somehow, our digivices are capable of detecting threats to our person and will automatically react by triggering the digivolving process."  
  
"But why have Agumon and Gabumon digivolved more than everybody else?" Palmon asked.  
  
"Well, Matt and Tai do seem to have a stronger tendency to get in harm's way." Gabumon offered, casting a bit of a scolding glance at Matt as he spoke.  
  
"Well, it nice to have all that business cleared up!" Tentomon announced.  
  
"I wouldn't celebrate just yet," Izzy admonished "there are still plenty of questions about this entire occurrence that I would still like to see answered. The whole idea of an organism spontaneously changing to another and back is still quite over my head."  
  
"Hey!" Sora shouted "Where's Biyomon?"  
  
Looking up, the other saw that they'd been so engrossed in conversation that the whole mob had vanished without their noticing. From behind them another Biyomon, this one native to the village, announced "Your companion's presence has been requested by the Village Elders at the great hall. You may join them if you wish."  
  
To the Yokomon, the thatch tower that was the "great hall" must have seemed humungus. It was far less impressive to the seven humans packed tightly into the main audience chamber. Still, it was certainly a welcome improvement over the knee high huts that made up the rest of the Village. At the far end of the chamber sat the elders: seven Biyomon who happened to be the only Biyomon in the Village. With them sat "our" Biyomon. While the elders seemed, for the most part, identical, "ours" stood apart. While weren't any single differences in there appearance that jumped out on it's own, there were enough subtle discrepancies to make her stick out. Her beak, for example, came to a sharper point than the others'. Her claws also seemed sharper, and she also seemed thinner than the others. The overall effect was, she seemed, well, more lethal than the other Biyomon. The eight digimon were seated behind a shinny slab marble that served as a table. "Our" Biyomon was sitting near the center on a highly ordinate chair that, by all appearances, seemed to signify her as the guest of honor. To her left, the largest (and, it appeared, oldest) of the Biyomon sat in the only chair fancier that that of their guest. They, all sat silently, waiting, it seemed, for the steady flow of Yokomon into the chamber to come to a stop.  
  
"WOW!" Mimi remarked at the increasingly huge mass of Yokomon continued to grow "What a crowd!"  
  
"The last time I saw a crowd this big was when mom took me to see The Grinch!" T.K. said, in awe "But then, we had a whole parking lot to stand in. How are all these guys supposed to fit in here?"  
  
"It's crowded enough as it is." Joe complained from the corner he'd been forced into "How are we supposed to have any room to breathe if any more try to squeeze in?"  
  
"Hey, this place wasn't build with humans in mind," Agumon admonished "you're just going to have to bear it."  
  
"Oh, you're one to talk about `bearing it' when you can't even stop scratching those bandages." Gomamon laughed, pointing at the wrapping Agumon was encased in.  
  
"Come on!" Agumon whined, scratching "All this burn lotion itches something crazy!"  
  
"Why'd you even give them to him Joe?" Palmon asked "It just seems to be making him worse."  
  
"Hey, it may itch now," Joe said, defensively "but he'll thank me latter."  
  
"Don't bet on it." Agumon grunted under his breath.  
  
"What are those old pigeons waiting for?" Tai moaned impatiently "Can't they hurry up and say what ever they're here to say?"  
  
"It would appear that the elders intend for all of the village to be present for whatever is about to occur." Izzy pointed out.  
  
"It must be important, then." Matt mussed.  
  
"I hope it's not bad news." Sora said, looking worriedly and Biyomon.  
  
"I shudder to ask, but what would make you think it is?" Tenotmon asked.  
  
"Well, look at Biyomon." Sora said. While Biyomon's face wasn't as expressive as a human's it still portraed an obvious air of concern.  
  
"I wonder what she's worried about?" Sora continued.  
  
"Well, she seems to be staring at us quite a bit," Izzy postulated "maybe it has to do with us."  
  
"I hope we're not doing something were not supposed to." Gabumon wondered "I don't know a lot about customs concerning this place."  
  
"Maybe we're in some one else's spot?" T.K. offered.  
  
"Well, that somebody's out of luck!" Mimi said firmly "Every place else is even worse than this, so I'm not moving!"  
  
And move they didn't, despite the massive hoard of Yokomon that very nearly pushed them through the walls of the great hall. For several minutes after the last Yokomon had entered the hall, the elders continued to chatter quietly between themselves, occasionally motioning towards their human guests. All the while, Biyomon sat motionless, with worried eyes locked on Sora. Then, without warning, the oldest of the elders rose. In an instant, the hall fell silent.  
  
"Finally!" Tai groused "Now maybe now we can find out what all this is about."  
  
"Thank you all for coming." the large digimon half grunted through it's considerable jowls "As you no doubt know, we have all been privy to a most disturbing turn of events today."  
  
"We have?" Matt whispered, suspiciously.  
  
"I wonder what it was?" Agumon asked to no one in particular.  
  
"Surely, he's not referring to Biyomon's digivolution." Izzy mussed, not at all sure.  
  
"This morning, Yokomon Village fell under a ruthless and unprovoked attack at the hands of Myramon. Given the evidence and circumstances surrounding this attack, we have come to the unanimous conclusion that this was the work of Devimon."  
  
"Who?" Sora muttered to her digimon companions.  
  
"Devimon." Tentomon explained "He's a most unpleasant fellow who live deep in the island interior."  
  
"Lives?" Gomamon objected "That's putting it mildly."  
  
"He's the dictator." Gabumon explained. "A totalitarian dictatior. Nobody messes with him." He would have elaborated further, but a Yokomon in front of them "ssshhh"ed him, so he shut up.  
  
"This is an understandably unsettling development, as Devimon has never before shown any hostility towards our village."  
  
"Could he be attempting to increase his power in this area?" One of the Yokomon inquired.  
  
"Unlikely," a Biyomon to the side of the old one piped up "There is a considerable stretch of land between us and the perimeter of Devimon's realm. If this move was powered by mere territorial lust, he would have attempted to move in on that land before ours."  
  
"Well, if that wasn't behind the move what was?" another Yokomon asked.  
  
"AHEM!" the old Biyomon thundered, annoyed at the diversion of attention from himself "I was preparing to explain that. Given the lack of interest Devimon has shown in us until now, it is obvious that something drastic has recently happened to sour his opinion towards this village."  
  
"And that would be?" a third Yokomon piped up, impatiently.  
  
"Our 'guest's' would seem to fall within both categories." he said, eyeing the seven humans warily.  
  
"Does he mean US?" T.K. asked, confused.  
  
"I'm afraid so." Tentomon gulped.  
  
"HEY!" Mimi shouted "Don't you pick on us! We didn't do anything! It's not our fault if this Devi guy doesn't like you!"  
  
"Your companion here has given us reason to believe otherwise." another of the elders remarked, gesturing towards Biyomon, who was looking more ill by the minute. "She tells us that you recently had an encounter with a Seadramon with a large gear in it's hide. Is this correct?."  
  
"It is." Gabumon answered.  
  
"The black gear is the tool of Devimon." the elder shot back.  
  
"Through them, he controls digimon throughout this island." another elder elaborated "Your encounter with the forces of Devimon clearly shows that you have incurred his wrath."  
  
"Well, what did we do?" Tai asked "We didn't even know who this guy was until just now, so how could we have ticked him off already."  
  
"You don't have to know somebody to get on there nerves." Matt pointed out from behind. After all, he hadn't known Tai when they first arrived at camp, and that didn't stop him from getting on his nerves.  
  
"Hey, just who's side are you on?" Tai whispered through gritted teeth.  
  
Before Matt had a chance to answer, the big Biyomon cleared his throat once again to regain the attention of the assembly. "The details are beside the point." he bellowed "The fact is, some how, you've become the object of Devimon's wrath, and I cannot permit this village to suffer that wrath as well."  
  
"Uhh, I hate to be a fear mongerer," Izzy whispered nervously to his companions "but that sounded mildly threatening."  
  
"Thus," the large elder continued "I must insist upon the removal of this threat in the most expedient manner possible".  
  
"WHOA, Whoa!" Gomamon shouted "Whadaya mean 'remove'?"  
  
"He means" an elder to the left explained smugly "that, for the safety of this village and it's inhabitants, you and your companions will leave."  
  
"And stay far away." the big one added. The suddenly unwelcome group of vagabonds stood aghast, frantically jogging their minds to come up with something in there defense. Before any of them had a chance to come up with anything, Biyomon stood and, nervously, addressed the elders surrounding her:  
  
"In all respect to this body of elders, I must express my shock, now as before, that you could arrive so readily at such a hasty an action. My companions and myself have done nothing to any of you to warrant such treatment."  
  
"Oh, so Myramon just wandered in by accident." someone muttered, incredulously.  
  
"Can you prove he didn't?" Biyomon shot back, wishing she knew who had said it so she'd know where to be looking.  
  
"I don't see why any one would need to." some one else snickered.  
  
"Besides, what good could possibly come from your staying?" one elder asked, with a mockingly false tone of curiosity.  
  
"She's probably just gotten comfy in that chair." some one in the crowd poked.  
  
"Yeah," another concurred "she just wants to take over the counsel!"  
  
"Hey! You leave Biyomon alone!" Sora shouted at the laughing crowd that, only an hour ago, had been hailing Biyomon as a hero.  
  
"I have no such desires!" Biyomon insisted, becoming increasingly frustrated "I'm simply trying to do what's right!"  
  
"Well," the eldest elder rumbled "it's time you stopped and started doing what was in the best interest for this village."  
  
"How would a stranger like her know what that is?" a voice from the crowd whispered, insuring that it was loud enough to be heard.  
  
"Just because I wasn't born at the same Primary Village as the rest of you doesn't mean I don't know the difference between right and wrong." Biyomon said, her voice beginning to quiver.  
  
"I sincerely question that if you think that crossing Devimon is right." the old elder quaked.  
  
"WHAT?!?!?" Biyomon cried, aghast "How many times have I come to this very hall and heard you extolling what a `villainous wretch' Devimon is and how `his evil ways cannot be tolerated much longer'? What happened to the great elder who urged his fellow villagers not to allow Devimon to intimidate them and to hold fast to their convictions?"  
  
"What good are convictions if no one is alive to hold them?" the ancient digimon hissed angrily as he leered over this insubordinate whelp "If we rise up against Devimon, we will be destroyed and now one will be left to stand. When the time is right, Devimon will reap the seeds of destruction he has sown; but that time is most certainly not now, and I will not allow some band of stranger hobos to invite that worm's wretched business here!"  
  
After seeing her valiantly battle that afternoon, one might have expected Biyomon to shun these barbs with the ease that she'd withstood those previous attacks. However, this situation proved far different from that one. Simple brutish violence from a total stranger doesn't bear anywhere near the emotional strains as persecution from friends as violent as this. It certainly was more than Biyomon had come prepared to face. She tried once to reply, and twice afterwards, but even if her thoughts had been clear enough to form words, hear quivering beak would never have been able to form them. The only thing that made it through the suffocating sea of frustration and despair and entered her mind was to flee. So she did, bawling.  
  
Sora rushed out to find Biyomon while Mimi shouted "What did you do that for?"  
  
"Yeah!" T.K. concurred "Stop being such a jerk!"  
  
"The truth isn't always nice." the elder answered "It's not our fault that your friend couldn't handle it."  
  
"Wha-" Tai exploded "That's just a load of-"  
  
"Give it a rest, Tai." Matt said, grabbing Tai's shoulder "These guys already have their minds made up." With that, he started for the door, saying "We're not welcome here any more."  
  
As he watched the downtrodden group make there way to the exit, the old Biyomon said "If it makes any difference, I am sorry that it has had to come to this, but if Devimon does wish to destroy you, we cannot risk interfering."  
  
"Well I'm sure Devimon is grateful for your loyal aid." Matt shot back with a sneer before he left. Behind him, the hall was quiet as a tomb as the sting of that barb soaked in.  
  
Sora ran frantically through the Yokomon village, trying not to step on one of the knee high huts. But then, she was so angry at the moment, she really didn't care if she did. The only thing that really mattered was finding Biyomon. She had to be here some where. For little things that weren't even three feet tall, the tiny huts had a knack for obstructing her view. There always seemed to be more of them, and Biyomon wasn't in any of them. After what had seemed like an eternity, Sora found her crouched and sobbing against the wall of the well on the outskirts of the village. She tried to reach around her to comfort her, but Biyomon refused and pulled away.  
  
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." she wept "I let you down..."  
  
"Hey." Sora admonished as she wrapped her arms around the bawling digimon, not giving her a chance to wring out this time "Come on, don't beat yourself up. You did what you could. Some people are just jerks and you can't do anything about it."  
  
"That's just it!" Biyomon wept, pulling herself away "There should've been something I could have done! I should have been able to help you! I'm supposed to protect you!"  
  
Sora tried to come up with something she could say to comfort her, but instead decided to try a more direct approach and gave the hug thing a third shot. This time, Biyomon didn't resist and instead buried her face in Sora's arms. "I'm supposed to protect you..." she whimpered weakly.  
  
And there they sat for a few minutes until Joe and Gomamon found them.  
  
"Oh, WHEW!" Joe sighed as he ran up to the pair "We were looking all over for you!"  
  
"What's the matter?" Sora asked "We're getting kicked out, so it's not like we wouldn't have wound up out here anyway."  
  
"That's what we needed to tell you!" Joe panted "They're going easy on us!"  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Yeah!" Gomamon explained "They still don't want us hanging around, but we still get to spend the night while they gather up some supplies we get to take with us!"  
  
"Really?" Sora exclaimed "ALL RIGHT! Did you hear that Biyomon?" It was then that she noticed that Biyomon had fallen asleep.  
  
"Hey, wake up!" she said, trying to rouse the groggy digimon "You did make a difference!"  
  
"Uhhh, Sora?" Joe whispered "If anybody made a difference, it was Matt."  
  
"Well, she doesn't have to know that." Sora whispered back.  
  
"Understood." Joe winked as they got up to leave.  
  
All of the Yokomon's huts were, of course, too small to accept any human guests; but the inventive villagers were able to work out accommodations anyway. Along side the great hall were a number of large (to their builders, at least) storehouses built to hold fruits harvested from the trees on nearby Mount Chooser. If the group had arrived much later, the storehouses would have been holding a years worth of food. Fortunately, they didn't so the houses now found themselves holding seven exhausted humans. While they rested, the digimon busied themselves with gathering supplies. The Yokomon had told them about a number of huge structures a few day's travel form the village. One of these was supposed to be some kind of temple. Although none of the Yokomon had actually been there themselves, Leomon had mentioned it to them on occasion and it seemed he hung around there a lot. Not having any better ideas, it was decided that this would be the group's next stop; so they were packing accordingly.  
  
"OK, we've got the hats and the dozen scuzzy fruits, but we're still gathering up the rest." Gomamon announced as he skimmed the list the Yokomon had written up.  
  
"What all to we need to gather up?" Palmon asked, lugging a bag of fruit behind her.  
  
"Well," Gomamon began as he took a deep breath "we're gonna need canteens, water, plenty more fruit, water, some bedding, water, stuff to haul it all in, water, water, some more water, and most importantly, WATER!"  
  
"OK! OK! I get the idea!" Palmon said shaking her head "Water good! No water bad!"  
  
"Well, water could be a bit of a problem." Tentomon called from the shore of Sunken Lake. Myramon's little escapades earlier had had some very adverse effects on the lake: there wasn't one to speak of at the moment.  
  
"Oh, don't worry." one of the Yokomon assured Tentomon "The water from the springs on Mount Chooser will have filled the lake completely within a week."  
  
"Unfortunately, we won't be here to see it." Tentomon pointed out.  
  
"We'll be out in the middle of the dessert hot and thirsty and tired by then!" Palmon whined.  
  
"There must be something we can do." Patamon said.  
  
"Don't you have any other sources of water?" Agumon asked.  
  
"It all comes from the same source:" the Yokomon explained "the springs on Mount Chooser."  
  
"So, are those springs still flowing now?" Gabumon asked, with a plan struggling to form it's self in his head.  
  
"Yes sir." the Yokomon answered, not sure where Gabumon was going.  
  
"In that case, we could just go up there and get it now!" Agumon exclaimed, knowing just were Gabumon was going.  
  
"Exactly!" Gabumon answered.  
  
"I don't know," the Yokomon said, concerned "it's quite a difficult trip up there, and I don't even want to think about trying to get back down with all that water."  
  
"Desperate times call for desperate measures!" Palmon exclaimed, exuberantly "I say that Agumon and Gabumon should go ahead with their plan!"  
  
"I second that!" Patamon shouted.  
  
"I third it!" Tentomon grinned (well, if he'd been capable of grinning, he would have) "Especially the part about them doing it!"  
  
"Hope you boys brought your hiking gear," Gomamon said, giving a very flabbergasted Agumon and Gabumon lists of what would be needed "`cause you are really gonna need it."  
  
"How do I get myself into these things?" Gabumon sighed to himself as he walked off to get some gear.  
  
"I dunno," Agumon jabbed as he followed "but I wish you'd stop getting me in  
  
`em with you... Boy, I envy Biyomon right now."  
  
"Say," Patamon asked "Where is Biyomon, anyway?"  
  
"She was still pretty wiped out from earlier today, so she went on to bed." Palmon explained.  
  
In their storehouse-turned cabin, gently held Biyomon in her arms as they slowly rocked in their makeshift hammock. Although she wasn't actually asleep, Biyomon hadn't mover or made a sound in some time. So, it came as quite a surprise when she whispered "Sora?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"For what?"  
  
"For not being angry at me."  
  
"Biyomon," Sora laughed "you don't have to worry about me getting angry with you over something like that."  
  
"I'd be more than happy to be angry with both of you if you don't keep it down." Mimi shot down from her hammock.  
  
"Sorry." Sora apologized.  
  
"That's what I think I admire the most about you." Biyomon whispered softly.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You never get mad at any body. Or, you don't stay mad. You always seem ready to forgive somebody."  
  
If Biyomon had been looking, she would have noticed Sora wincing considerably at that.  
  
Although their was quite a bit of racket outside the hut, Matt wasn't bothered the least by it. He actually preferred some noise when he slept (must be a result from living in big cities all his life). He was, however, quite bothered by Tai's frequent tossing and turning bellow him.  
  
"Hey, Matt?" Tai asked eventually.  
  
"What?" Matt answered, wearily.  
  
"How long have we been here?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"In the Digiworld, I mean."  
  
"Uhhh..." Matt said as he tried to figure it out "I'd say...about four days, almost five."  
  
"Oh, damn...five days." Tai moaned.  
  
"What?" Matt inquired, thought it seemed longer?"  
  
"Hell, yes." Tai sighed "Five days cold turkey."  
  
Matt shook his head. It seemed natural that something like that would be the main thing on Tai's mind. "Wait, wouldn't you also need to count the two weeks of camp?"  
  
"Naw," Tai answered "I was getting some stuff off of Mr. Crosby."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Well, what do you think they were doing down at the Canteen all day?"  
  
Matt sighed, a little flabbergasted. There must have been an extreme lack of background checking involved in hiring counselors.  
  
"What are ya doing, Izzy?" T.K. asked from his bunk.  
  
"OH! I'm sorry!" Izzy apologized from the floor, where he'd attempted to get quietly "I didn't mean to wake you!"  
  
"It's All right, I couldn't sleep anyway. Too much noise."  
  
"Yes, it is indeed quite a nuisance." Izzy concurred.  
  
"So whatta ya doing?" T.K. asked again.  
  
"I was attempting to see if my computer was working. Unfortunately, I neglected to consider the absence of lighting in this structure. Thus, I shall have to postpone my investigation until a later date."  
  
"Uh, OK." T.K. said, not even bothering to try to understand what he'd said.  
  
"In the mean time," Izzy added "I sincerely doubt that Matt would approve of my allowing you to remain awake for this long a period."  
  
"Uh, oh." T.K. said , warily "Are you telling me to go to sleep?"  
  
"That's it exactly." Izzy confirmed as he climbed into his hammock.  
  
"Oh, man. You're as bad as my mom..."  
  
Gomamon, Palmon, Tentomon, and Patamon laid in a heap on the storehouse floor, having left the stockpiling in the capable hands (or, antennae) of the Yokomon and retired for the night. As the snored contentedly, Joe tried in vain to cover his head sufficiently to drown it out.  
  
"OH, SURE!" he complained to no one in particular "Let's all go sleep with JOE! He won't mind a bit!"  
  
The next morning, the group of soon-to-be travelers slowly assembled on the perimeter of the village.  
  
"What's the matter with you?" Sora inquired of a very sleepy looking Matt.  
  
Pointing at Tai, he answered "That guy actually SNORES `Purple Haze'! Every damn note! He even does the high squeaky sound at the end! I had to put up with it all night!"  
  
At the same, Izzy noticed that Tai looked rather sleep deprived.  
  
"It's cause I was up all night doing 'Purple Haze' for Matt." he explained with a wicked laugh.  
  
"These things sure don't look very sturdy." Joe said, eyeing the makeshift backpacks the Yokomon had constructed for their individual supplies suspiciously "Are you sure they'll hold?"  
  
"They don't have to last forever," Gomamon explained "just till we get out of the dessert. Then we can just live off the land again."  
  
"Well, you could have at least tried to make them look more attractive." Mimi complained, holding her's with two fingers, like a dead animal.  
  
"Hey!" Patamon exclaimed "Where's Agumon and Gabumon?"  
  
"Right here!" Gabumon grunted wearily as he an Agumon limped into the village, dragging two bags of canteens behind them.  
  
"Now, this had better be the best water you've ever tasted" Agumon panted "After what we went through to get it."  
  
Once the two exhausted waterboys had had a chance to rest, the rag-tag group prepared to set out. Before they'd gone, however, the chief elder approached and addressed all those assembled:  
  
"I would like to take this moment to assure you all that we of this village bear no ill feeling towards you and it saddens us terribly that we must send you on your way so soon. As such, I wish you all a safe and pleasant journey. May that which you are searching for present it's self quickly."  
  
"Man, that guy lies with the best of them." Matt mocked as he began to walk off.  
  
"What did you expect? He's a politician!" Joe pointed out.  
  
"Still, it was a nice little speech." Agumon said.  
  
"Well, I personally would have liked 'we changed our minds. Come on back' a lot better." Tai shot back.  
  
But, of course, that was never mentioned as the small band of refugees wandered off into the dessert sun.  
  
To Be Continued... 


	5. This Desert Life

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter five  
  
P ALIGN = CENTERHigh and dry in the long hot day  
  
Lost and lonely every way  
  
Got the flats all around me, sky up above  
  
I need a little Water of Love  
  
I've been too long lonely and my heart feels pain  
  
Crying out for some soothing rain  
  
I believe I have taken enough  
  
I need a little Water of Love  
  
Water of Love deep in the ground  
  
But there ain't no water here too be found  
  
Someday, baby, when the river runs free  
  
It's gonna carry that Water of Love to me  
  
There's a up in a tree sitting up high  
  
Just a waiting for me to die  
  
If I don't get some water soon  
  
I'll be dead and gone by the afternoon  
  
Water of Love deep in the ground  
  
But there ain't no water here too be found  
  
Someday, baby, when the river runs free  
  
It's gonna carry that Water of Love to me  
  
Once I had a woman to call my own  
  
Once I had a woman, now my woman, she gone  
  
Once there was a rive, now there's a stone  
  
You know it's evil when you're living alone  
  
Water of Love deep in the ground  
  
But there ain't no water here too be found  
  
Someday, baby, when the river runs free  
  
It's gonna carry that Water of Love to me  
  
Yeah, Water of Love deep in the ground  
  
But there ain't no water here too be found  
  
Someday, baby, when the river runs free  
  
It's gonna carry that Water of Love to me  
  
/P  
  
"Water of Love"  
  
by Mark Knopfler  
  
from the album "Dire Straits" by Dire Straits (easy to remember, huh?)  
  
Chapter five:  
  
This Desert Life  
  
The Yokomon had dubbed the vast expanse of desert west of their village "The Great Dead Land". The fourteen brave, to a relative degree, travelers who were now challenging it's sun scared expanses had come up with their own, much more accurate name for it:  
  
"Hell."  
  
That certainly was the first thing that would come to you're mind while looking across the barren, unchanging landscape. And when you were walking across that barren, unchanging landscape it ceased to be simply a name for the desert.  
  
It was the desert.  
  
It described every last aspect of it's existence. The hazy air, the rock hard ground, the grimy salt that seemed to be on everything, the thick, sticky air. When God designed Hell-the biblical one-he must have visited this one first and took notes. Whether or not that was true, just the thought made the seven, ragged humans suddenly feel extremely religious. When you feel that death would be a welcome alternative to spending another second in a pace, the last thing you want to consider is that it would result in an eternity in an identical land. All their clothes stuck, as if they'd been glued to their gritty, sweaty skin. Their sore, rough tongues repeatedly skittered across dry, parched lips. Although they'd taken great pains to secure what little water they had left, it had proven impossible to prevent it from taking on the taste of the ever-present salt and sand, so drinking it did little to relieve the suffering of it's partakers. In their semi-delirious state, none of the travelers could have told you how many days they had been en route (I, however can tell you it was three), only that it'd been too long. It didn't help that the ever-present haze seemed to both dim the daylight and brighten the night; for the heat ravaged wanderers, it had become almost impossible to tell the difference except for the most extreme instances. All they could tell, with any certainty, was that they still had a ways to go. Not a pleasant thought.  
  
"OK, the glass is about...well, I dunno how tall, but it's one of those big Coke glasses so it's pretty big. Then I take the cup to the bowl of ice. It's got a kind of a fog over it, but you can still see the ice. So, I scoop up a bunch of the ice with the cup and go get the bottle of Dr. Pepper. It's a big bottle too, with lots of beads of water all over it. It kind of blows up a little when I open it. As I pour it over the ice, it falls down like this giant waterfall. As it starts to pile up on the bottom, the fizz starts too shoot up to the top..."  
  
"Mimi, I don't need you to help me die of thirst." Tai growled.  
  
"No, wait!" Palmon begged, licking her lips "That was beautiful! Tell us another one!"  
  
"No..." Mimi moaned "It's starting to depress me, really."  
  
"Anything that isn't depressing has to be at least a million miles from here," Matt said from the front "so that would make it depressing."  
  
"Well, leave it to you to make anything depressing." Tai responded.  
  
"I don't think he needs to." Joe moaned "It all already is."  
  
"You're not helping things." Sora admonished.  
  
"Would you rather we lied and said that this was the best time we've ever had in our lives?" Joe asked, sarcastically.  
  
"Well," Gomamon answered "it might be a lie, but it sure beats the truth at the moment."  
  
"What's that?" T.K. mumbled, weakly.  
  
"It's that we're all gonna die out here!" Mimi shouted, stopping dead in her tracks (oops, poor choice of words) "We're gonna run out of water, run out of food, then we're gonna collapse and die, and we still won't be any where near the other side of this stupid desert!"  
  
"Mimi!" Biyomon shouted "The last thing we need is to start getting a defeatist attitude like that!"  
  
"I don't care!" Mimi shot back, starting to cry "I just wanna go home, and lay in my own bed, and put on some clean clothes, and see my baby brother, and have air conditioning, and TV, and a shower, and first and foremost...I...WANT...MY...MOOOOOMMMM!!!!!!!!!" and with that, she collapsed on the cracked, gritty ground.  
  
"MIMI!" Sora shouted, rushing over to her side "Listen to me! We ARE going to get out of here! But not if you don't get up and stop crying!"  
  
"I don't care!" she answered "I'm not going any further! I'm got going any deeper into this desert!"  
  
"But you can't just stay here!" Palmon insisted, frantically "Don't want to get to the other side?"  
  
"We're NOT going to get to the other side!" Mimi sobbed admittedly "We're all going to die! So who cares which part of the desert it is?"  
  
"So that's it?" Matt jabbed "You're just going to let it win? You're just going to give up, roll over and die?"  
  
"It already won!" Mimi shouted, nihilisticly "I'm not going to die any more hot and tired than I already am!"  
  
"Mimi?" a soft, quivering voice whispered from behind her. Looking up for the first time sense her collapse, Mimi found T.K. timidly approaching her.  
  
"Don't talk like that, Mimi." he whimpered, on the verge of tears "Please...You're scaring me..."  
  
With a start, Mimi realized what she'd been saying "Oooohhhh.....come here..." she whispered.  
  
T.K. approached, slowly, and Mimi, with what strength she hadn't used in her tangent, hugged him. "Don't cry...don't cry, I'm sorry...I'm sorry." she whispered, trying both to console him and pull herself together at the same time.  
  
"Out of the mouth of babes." Izzy mussed to himself as he watched on from the side.  
  
"Well, that was extremely depressing." Tentomon observed.  
  
"That it was," Izzy concurred, "but at least it's over."  
  
"For now." Tentomon added.  
  
"Alight, now that's depressing." Izzy said.  
  
If the previous incident had seemed depressing, it certainly couldn't have held a candle to when their last canteen ran empty. In a valiant attempt to add a little levity to the dire circumstances, Matt gave a mock funeral for the canteen:  
  
"We are gathered here to honor the memory of this brave and valiant canteen who, despite fierce opposition from extreme circumstances, hostile terrain, and the presence of fourteen savage and ravenous travel companions, faithfully guarded a quart of water over four days. Now, as you go on to join you departed brethren, know that your dutiful service has not been in vain and will be remembered with honor."  
  
Of course, despite all the banter, the group teetered on the brink of despair, knowing full well what grim circumstances they were now faced with. Still, the illusion of a light mood was a welcomed change of pace, and they all leapt upon it with zeal.  
  
"You know, once my apartment felt a lot like this." Joe remembered "See, somebody was going to rob this store that was by the office, so he broke into the basement and turned the heat up all the way-in the middle of summer, mind you- to distract everybody."  
  
"Well, what happened?" Agumon asked.  
  
"Oh, I know!" Tai laughed "I heard it on the news! The guy got away scott free, but he didn't turn the heat back down, and the owner people were so caught up in the robbery that they forgot to do anything about the heat `till like the next day."  
  
"Bet a lota people got fired for that." Gomamon laughed.  
  
"Probably." Joe agreed.  
  
"At least you could leave and go some place cooler." Gabumon pointed out "We just have to grin and bear it."  
  
"I'll bear it, but I'm not grinnin'" Mimi objected.  
  
"I especially fear sorry for you furry guys." Matt said of Gabumon, Patamon and Biyomon (well, she wasn't furry, but feathers seemed just as bad to him) "The rest of can take things off, but you're really screwed."  
  
"Well, you can only take off so much." Izzy corrected.  
  
"And less than that, if there's more than one of you." Sora added.  
  
"I dunno," Tai thought, eyeing his female companions mischievously "it'd sure make the trip more enjoyable."  
  
"For who?" Mimi joked.  
  
The others had a good laugh while Matt mussed over what'd been said for a minute. "Hey, Gabumon," he said "is all that fur really a part of your body, or can you actually take it off?"  
  
"Hey, yeah!" T.K. shouted "It looks more like a big fur coat!"  
  
"Maybe he's trying to look like Matt?" Patamon joked.  
  
"No." Gabumon grinned, shaking his head "I just wear it because...well...I don't know why. I just do, I suppose."  
  
"That sounds like Matt to me!" T.K. giggled.  
  
"So why don't you take it off? It'd definitely make you feel better." Matt said. And he would know, he hadn't had his shirt on since they'd entered into the desert.  
  
"Some of us are just a little more...how should I put this...discreet that you, Matt." Gabumon explained, blushing a bit.  
  
"A little 'discretion' might do Matt some good." Sora whispered to Mimi "I don't even want to think about what kind of sunburn he's getting."  
  
"Yeah, but in the meantime, he's the only thing in this whole desert worth looking at!" Mimi said with a wink.  
  
"Hey, what's so funny?" T.K. asked, hearing the two giggling.  
  
"Oh, nothing!" Sora laughed, inocently.  
  
"Just girl stuff!" Mimi added.  
  
"What's 'girl stuff'?" Patamon asked.  
  
"I dunno," T.K. answered "but whenever my Mom says somthing like that, it means 'you don't need to be asking'."  
  
"Ooh...What does that mean?" Patamon asked again.  
  
"Don't ask me. I'm not sure I wanna know."  
  
"Uh...OK." Patamon said, deciding that things were getting a little too weird for his taste.  
  
While a sense of good humor can be refreshing, it sure can't hold a candle to water; which was, of course, the only thing that could have improved thing in any meaningful degree. But since there wasn't any, thing didn't improve. Within mere minutes of the conversations above, the jovial manner had been replaced by an air more depressing than any that had preceded it. There was no more whining. No more complaining. No...there was no time for that. As each second passed, each of the increasingly weary travelers found themselves falling deeper and deeper into an abyss of fear unlike any they had encountered before. Oh, there had been a considerable amount of fear involved in the several fierce battle that had been fought in the hectic days following their abduction from camp, but that was different. There was a constant rush involved, the conflicts didn't last as long, the object of their fear was something right in front of them. But most importantly, there was always something they could do. Always some tactic they just had to devise, some attack they had to use, a gear they had to hit in the right place.  
  
There was nothing of the sort here.  
  
No trick, no secret, no little key to uncover, just walking; walking though a desert with no idea how close they were to the other side. Dying of thirst all the while. It's hard to imagine the helplessness they now found themselves battling if you have never had to experienced it yourself. There was simply nothing they could do. No way to get water. No way to move faster. No anything. Just walking...  
  
There wasn't really anything anyone had to talk about that they hadn't already brought up in the previous days, so there wasn't much coherent conversation to record here. But that didn't mean that things were quiet. This mind numbing heat, endless walking, and increasingly suffocating blanket of disrepair had an effect on it's victims that I couldn't describe in rational words if I was given a thousand years to try. So I'll simply try to make do with sharing the results:  
  
"Oh, yeah" Mimi mumbled, not fully realizing that she was even speaking "It'll be a great party...we'll get my dad to bring the big screen TV from his office to watch some movies...he doesn't let us keep it around all the time because it takes up to much of the living room...my cousin's gonna come over from New York, and you're just gonna love her...I'll be great to see her again..."  
  
"Look..." Palmon muttered from behind her "There's a big, giant water fountain...and there's a nice long slip and slide...look at all that water..."  
  
"Vulpix is the coolest..." T.K. whispered as he stumbled along "Well, OK, Snorlax is all right to...but Vulpix is better..."  
  
"...Lincon...Johnson...Grant..." Izzy recited, trying to keep his mind clear "Hayes...Arthur...Garfield...no, wait, Garfield was elected first, then Arthur...This isn't working...2x2=4...4x4=16...8x8=64..."  
  
"Hey, Gabumon?" Agumon asked weakly "Remember that time when you and me got stuck on that little raft in the middle of Tanemon Bay?"  
  
"Ohhh...yeah." Gabumon sighed with an odd mix of fear and nostalgia "That's not the sort of thing you forget easily."  
  
"Neither's this." commented Sora, who couldn't help but overhear.  
  
"You know..." Agumon continued, ignoring her "When I got back to the shore, I swore that I didn't ever want to see water again."  
  
"Bet you regret that now..." Mimi commented, snapping back to reality for a moment.  
  
"Water?" Tai muttered oddly, at an unsettling volume.  
  
"Uh, oh..." Sora said, nervously "He's gonna pop!"  
  
"WE NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED WATER!!!!!!!!" he yelled with a voice that betrayed not the slightest hint of sanity before breaking out in song, in questionable key and without the slightest sense of melody:  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER"The fireman over there hates the gang  
  
Poor people on the barge getting so rough  
  
The truck driver drives like a devil  
  
The police men, they're actin' so tough  
  
They need water!  
  
Good, good water!  
  
WEEEEEE need water!  
  
And maybe somebody's daughter!"*/P  
  
"OK, OK..." Sora butted in "I don't like the direction this thing's taking."  
  
"I just plain don't like it!" Biyomon complained, covering her ears. Never the less, Tai continued:  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER"My Chevrolet just makes steam  
  
Your crop is laying far out  
  
My grass's just lost it's green  
  
I'm alive but I don't know how  
  
We need water  
  
Good, good water  
  
We need water  
  
And Somebody's daughter  
  
Come on, give me good water  
  
Come on, give me good water  
  
Come on, give me good water  
  
Please don't refuse me, mister  
  
I've daughter at the oasis, and I'm beginning to blister..."*/P  
  
"TAI?" Joe thundered (well, it was as close as he could get to something like that) "IF YOU MENTION WATER ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR, I AM GOING TO START TO CRY."  
  
"I sincerely doubt that that would be a wise course of action." Tentomon panted "I doubt you could spare the moisture."  
  
But, difficult as it was to rationalize with Tai when he was coherent, it was downright impossible in his current, maniacal state:  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER"Indian Lake is burning  
  
New York skyline is hazy  
  
The river Thames is turning dry  
  
The whole wide world is a'blazin'!  
  
We need water!  
  
Good, good water!  
  
We need water!  
  
And maybe somebody's daughter!"*/P  
  
Tai hadn't quite finished that last phrase when he was presented with an argument he couldn't ignore:  
  
Matt's fist.  
  
"Tai? You listen closely, because I am only going to say this once. I am hot, tired, sore, thirsty, and all around MAD. The absolute last thing you want to do in your life is tick me off any more. So, SHUT UP!!!!!!"  
  
It was more than any one could tell if Tai (who know laid prostrate on the cracked ground) had actually comprehended what Matt had said, as he didn't shut up, but he did get quieter.  
  
"Waterfall, nothing can harm me at all  
  
My worries seem so small  
  
With my waterfall..."**  
  
Then, abruptly, Tai stopped and followed with something even more unexpected.  
  
He started to cry.  
  
Not loudly, out of control, or anything like that; he just shut his eyes and wept softly. Agumon, Biyomon and Sora rushed over and gently tried to console him.  
  
"Hey, hey. Just calm down, Tai." Sora whispered "It's going to be all right if you just calm down; OK? Tai? You there?"  
  
Eventually, after less urging than you might have expected, she was successful in rousing Tai enough to get him walking again. He didn't stop crying, however. Neither did his singing cease, but both had become soft enough that no one was bothered by it anymore. Besides, most of the group had suddenly been over come with enough compassion for the poor soul that they couldn't have gotten angry with him at the moment even if they'd wanted too.  
  
Not so for Matt. Wrenching compassion from him was something that was quite a feat under the best circumstances, for which this hardly qualified. No, he just stood in utter disgust of this whole, pathetic display.  
  
"Maybe we should take a rest for a minute" Sora whispered to Matt "Tai could really use it."  
  
"We don't have time." Matt answered, briskly "The sooner we get out of this place the better."  
  
"If we continue to proceed at this rate, I fear that we may exhaust our strength long before we exit this desert." Izzy said, panting.  
  
"And if we stop," Matt shot back, annoyed "we'll still be getting hotter, and we'll still be getting tiered, and we'll still be drying up like rocks. The only thing we won't be doing is getting closer go getting out!"  
  
"Look, big guy," Sora pressed, becoming angry "you may be able to walk for a hundred miles without a drop of water and not flinch, but Tai's about to crack."  
  
"Oh?" Matt asked, sarcastically "I'd assumed that that was what just happened."  
  
"OK, fine!" Sora continued "You go ahead and assume just that! How can we keep pushing him while he's like this?"  
  
"What, you think just because things are getting a little unpleasant and Tai doesn't like it, that we should all just stop so he can pout?" Matt snarled coldly, but wrathfully "It's not our problem that he's to soft to handle it when thing get rough. A dose of the real world will do him good."  
  
"Wha-wha...WHAT?" Sora gapped, aghast "How...how can you say something like that?"  
  
"Because it's the truth." he sighed, shaking his head. He'd hoped she wouldn't turn out to be as naive as the others. So much for that.  
  
"Look..." Sora growled, now just plain mad "It's easy to just stand around and ignore it when someone else has it bad, but it'll seem a lot different when it's you."  
  
"HEY, IT'S BEEN ME!" Matt hissed, as he stopped and whirled around to face Sora "I have spent my whole life "having it bad", so don't you go trying to tell me how to handle it!"  
  
Sora tried to respond, but she was too taken aback by Matt's sudden outburst to think of anything. Matt hesitated for a moment and, seeing that Sora wasn't going to try and interrupt, continued "Look, life is an ugly, hideous, bloodthirsty whore who likes nothing more that to make things miserable for everyone. You and Tai and the rest of you may not have realized it till now, but I've had thirteen lousy years see it first hand, and I can tell you that it's just one lousy disaster after another. You just have to shut your mouth and keep on going. There's no time to feel sorry, no time to lick your sores, and certainly no time to curl up in a ball and cry like a little baby!"  
  
With that, Matt stormed off once again. It was hours before the hazy air was cut by conversation once again. Not that things were quiet for Matt; far from it.  
  
That was a good question, you know. What if it was you? You know it will be. It's just a manner of time.  
  
"Just cause a baby like Tai snapped, that doesn't mean I will" Matt told himself.  
  
We all know Tai's just a child, but that just meant he'd go sooner than you. You'll go too. Just wait.  
  
"Shut up." Matt hissed silently.  
  
You didn't answer me. What do you think you'll do? You think you'll start singing? Maybe you'll do a little dance. Who knows? You might actually speak in more than three sentences per hour!  
  
"I said shut up. I am not going to lose it like these wimps."  
  
I know what you'll do. You'll curl up in a little ball and cry; just like Tai.  
  
"NO." Matt replied, teetering on the edge of becoming audible "Don't you dare compare me to him."  
  
Why not? It's what you'll do. You'll collapse in a heap and cry; weak and pathetic.  
  
"What do you know?"  
  
I know you...oh, come on. I am you! And I know that's what you'll do: you'll break down and cry. You'll be as weak as the others. Weak as Tai...weak as your father....  
  
"SHUT UP!!!!!!!" Matt's mind screamed.  
  
"Matt?" Gabumon asked, noticing Matt's visible distress "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yes..." Matt hissed through gritted teeth "I'm fine."  
  
That night the group laid solemnly under the pea soup sky and tried, in vain, to wrest a few moments of relief from their ravenous thirst. Relief was, of course, not quick in coming. Instead, the exhausted corps spent the night attempting to occupy themselves as the silent hours crept by.  
  
"Patamon?"  
  
"Yeah. T.K.?"  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
"No...I can barely lift my ears..."  
  
"Gee...and you haven't even had to do any walking..."  
  
"Hey, Tai?"  
  
"What is it, Agumon?"  
  
"What was up with all that singing back there?"  
  
"Oh..." Tai winced "I dunno...To be honest, I don't really remember it..."  
  
"Well, did the others fill you in?"  
  
"Yeah. The singing, the rest of the singing, Matt's fist-though I do remember that-they told me everything."  
  
"So what was with that last bit?"  
  
"What last bit?"  
  
"You know," Agumon said, a little bewildered " after Matt hit you."  
  
"I didn't think any thing happened after he hit me..." Tai said, suspiciously.  
  
"Uh oh" Agumon mumbled, figuring that he'd done something he wasn't supposed too.  
  
"UH OH, WHAT?" Tai asked.  
  
"Nothing! Nothing at all!" Agumon stuttered nervously.  
  
"WHAT HAPPENED???" Tai demanded.  
  
"Uh...well...are you sure you want to know?"  
  
"YES, I'm sure! Now cough it up!"  
  
"Well...OK...You see...Now, this doesn't in any way make me think any less of you..."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"And it's not like there was anything wrong with it..."  
  
"WHAT?!?!?!?" Tai thundered.  
  
"...You started to cry."  
  
"Ohh, great." Tai moaned, laying back down "Was it bad?"  
  
"Like a baby." Agumon confessed.  
  
"Sigh...I bet Matt just loved that..."  
  
"I can't believe this is happening..." Joe mumbled, in a state of quiet panic "This just can't be happening. It isn't real. It's just a figment of my imagination. That's it...I'm going crazy...I'm not dyeing, I'm just going crazy...OH NO! I'm going CRAZY!!!"  
  
"Joe, please!" Gomamon moaned "I'd like to be able to at least imagine that I'm asleep."  
  
"How can you sleep at a time like this? Don't you have any idea what's happening?"  
  
"Yeah, you're making a lot of noise that's keeping me awake."  
  
"NO! I mean what's happening to us!" Joe said, shaking his head "Do you have any idea what happens to the body when it undergoes dehydration? The damage being done to our mussels by all this walking without any breaks?"  
  
"We're having a break right now, Joe."  
  
"You know what I mean! And don't even get me started on all the sunburn we're going to have to deal with. does having a layer of dead skin all over you sound like fun?"  
  
"You know what, Joe?" Gomamon asked, sarcastically "You're a real joy to have around."  
  
"Well, I'm sorry that I happen to be taking our health seriously." Joe answered  
  
"We need to have somebody who thinks of these things around."  
  
"Yeah, it's just too bad that nobody listens..." Gomamon snickered.  
  
"Nobody ever wants to listen to their doctor's advice." Joe complained "They just run off and forget it all as soon as they leave the office. The, of course, something bad happens, and guess who's fault it is?" The doctor's, of course!"  
  
"So, remind me again," Gomamon asked "why exactly is it that you want to be one?"  
  
"Because it's supposed to be such a fulfilling job..." Joe sighed, shaking his head.  
  
"...However, this hypothesis is most likely false. For, throughout the know universe-even the supposed expanses of space that would separate our universe from this supposed `anti-verse'-matter still exists in a rarefied state-"  
  
"...And as such, would eventually come into contact with the particles of which they are the conjugates." Tentomon started, interrupting Izzy's lecture "This of course would result in, to put it mildly, cataclysmic circumstances that would be recordable even from Earth."  
  
"Very good, Tentomon!" Izzy congratulated "Although, I still wish you wouldn't interrupt me like that."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry...I just got so swept up in the moment..."  
  
"It's all right, I can think of plenty of worse things you could get caught up in." Izzy assured him, thinking specifically of his hockey playing neighbor; a nice enough fellow, but dumb as a post.  
  
"That's right! You can never know too much! That's what I always say!" Tentomon laughed, though he'd never in his life said it before.  
  
At that, Izzy rolled over so Tentomon wouldn't see him frown. He had found, through personal experience that a wealth of knowledge that exceeded that of the average person could be as much of a curse as it was a blessing. Very often, people seemed to feel threatened by a superior intellect, which often made it difficult for Izzy to interact with those of lesser intelligence.  
  
Maybe they're afraid you'll figure out something about them they don't want you to know.  
  
"Intelligence isn't the same thing as clairvoyance." Izzy thought to himself.  
  
Maybe not, but you must admit, you do have a knack for it.  
  
"I simply pay attention to my surroundings; there's nothing wrong with that."  
  
But there is something wrong with eavesdropping.  
  
"That was just that one time! It's not like I made a habit out of it."  
  
But it did lead to other kinds of snooping.  
  
"Only along the lines of that one subject!"  
  
Still, you did it. Rooting through personal information. Breaking into computer files. You know, you could possibly be looking at jail time if anyone ever tracked it back to you.  
  
"We both know it would never come to that."  
  
Yeah, you're right. After all, you did have a right too know.  
  
"Exactly."  
  
It's not your fault their both liars.  
  
"Now wait just a minute!" Izzy snapped silently.  
  
Well, it's true. They lied to your face.  
  
"It was also their prerogative. They needed to do what they thought would be in my best interest."  
  
What they "thought" wasn't necessarily what was right.  
  
"Are you trying to make any point in particular?" thought to himself, annoyed.  
  
Just what a sorry, confused person you are.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry that you feel that way."  
  
You will to, if you'd just stop and think about it for a moment.  
  
However, Izzy made especially sure that he didn't; as usual.  
  
"ooohhhhh...MAN!"  
  
"What's the matter?" Palmon asked.  
  
"Look at this!" Mimi whined, rooting through her suitcase "All this sand is getting into my clothes!"  
  
"Oh, no!" Palmon gasped "We'll have to do some major washing once we get out of here!"  
  
"I'll say." Mimi concurred "I remember once this...man, I don't know what it was, but it got caught in the air vents and blew dust all trough the building. Me and my mom had to spend all day cleaning the apartment."  
  
"Geee..." Palmon mused "That sounds like a real drag."  
  
"It was, at first, but see, the whole building was doing it, so Mom started giving out cups of lemonade to our neighbors. Pretty soon, it was almost like we were having a party!"  
  
"That doesn't exactly sound like the best kind of party I can imagine."  
  
"Well, I guess you'd have to've been there." Mimi laughed. Then, abruptly, she frowned.  
  
"What's the matter?" Palmon asked.  
  
"It's just...well...it's been a week since I got here, right?"  
  
"I think..." Palmon answered "Why?"  
  
"Today was supposed to be my little brother's birthday party." she said, down cast.  
  
"Ooohhh..."  
  
"Noel's birthday was actually the day before, but we were going to wait for camp to let out before we had the party so I could be there." Mimi stood silent for a moment before starting up again "What do you think their doing?"  
  
"Your family?"  
  
"All our families." she corrected "Are they worried? Do you think their looking for us?"  
  
"Of course they are!" Palmon reassured "I know, if you just up and disappeared, I'd be worried about you!"  
  
"That's just the problem! I don't want them to be worried about me! I don't want them to be scared..."  
  
"Ohhh, Mimi..." Palmon sighed, coming up blank on things to say to comfort her "Are you going to start crying again?"  
  
"I hope not..."  
  
Sora tossed and turned, trying to somehow trick herself into thinking that the thick, crackling leaves that made up her "bed" were comfortable. Unfortunately, Sora had never been much of a liar. The only thing within miles that was soft was Biyomon, who had volunteered (well, actually, she'd insisted on it) to be Sora's pillow. Sora laid there, starring into the murky cloud that was laughably called the air. It was amazing how badly she envied the sleeping digimon. She didn't have be awake and face her thoughts. If only Sora had been so lucky.  
  
You know, some of the others still expect to get out of this alive.  
  
"Are you saying I don't? It can't be that far to the end of the desert."  
  
You know that's not what I mean. I'm talking about this whole thing. The actually think that they'll get back home.  
  
"We might."  
  
"Might?" You "might" grow wings fly back, but it's not bloody likely.  
  
"I'd still rather be optimistic about this."  
  
Even when it means being dishonest? Come on, you don't have to keep this act up, no body's watching.  
  
"Who said it was an act?"  
  
Oh, please, you and I both know it is. Why can't you look at honestly? What are you so scared of?  
  
"Oh, I don't know, maybe dying?" Sora thought, sarcastically.  
  
It's more than that. You don't want to go without kissing and making up.  
  
"With who?"  
  
You know exactly who.  
  
"Well, it was her own fault!" Sora thought, defensively "She had no right to ask that!"  
  
Ah, ha! Here we go!  
  
"Shut up! This isn't funny. If she'd just realize how obsessive she's being, we would have this problem!"  
  
You know it's not all her fault. You could have handled yourself better to.  
  
"...yeah, I know." Sora sighed, reluctantly.  
  
Matt couldn't have slept if he'd wanted to, but he didn't, so he didn't mind. He'd never liked going to bed, and some times he'd deliberately stay awake all night out of spite. Unfortunately, he hadn't imagined the long reaching consequences of this childish act: now it was impossible for him to nod off until after midnight without medicinal help. Still, it was nice to have some time alone with his thoughts.  
  
Well, most of the time, anyway.  
  
This time, like it had been the whole day, Matt found himself fighting a battle with himself.  
  
It's true, you know, you're no stronger than any of the rest of them  
  
"If you keep telling yourself that, you may actually start to believe it."  
  
Oh, I all ready do. It's you who needs convincing.  
  
"Shut up"  
  
Oh, real mature. You are so pathetic! Do you really think you're so special just 'cause you've been inconvenienced before?  
  
"Hey, it goes way past `inconvenienced' pal"  
  
It sure doesn't stack up to this.  
  
"Some of it does."  
  
Oh, that's right. Your little escapade in the park. News flash, hiding in a city park for the weekend isn't anything remarkable.  
  
"Well, let's see you try it."  
  
You idiot, I AM you!  
  
"Look," Matt thought, trying to shift the subject "I just so happen to know twice what they know about what the real world is like."  
  
OK, you got me there.  
  
"Exactly, this is nothing new to me."  
  
Yeah, you're dying.  
  
"What?"  
  
That's all you've been doing your whole life. Just dying a little more each day.  
  
"Well, at least now it won't take so long."  
  
You're lying again, Matt.  
  
"OK, FINE!" Matt though, annoyed "I don't like the thought of being beat by this smelly, sticky, hunk of sand. You happy?"  
  
Not really. Just how do you propose to get out?  
  
"The traditional way: walk."  
  
You've been walking! Fat lot of good it's done, you're still not out yet.  
  
"I don't care! I'm not just going to lay down and die!"  
  
That's right, death has to come and get you. It's the running that'll do you in.  
  
"I'm not running from death. I'm taking it head on."  
  
You know, that's just about the dumbest thing you've ever said. No, wait, I take that back. It IS the dumbest thing you've ever said.  
  
"I don't care. I'm still going to keep moving. Even if I don't get anywhere, it's making sure I don't stop that's important."  
  
Your life motto.  
  
Matt didn't bother to answer.  
  
Eventually, daylight managed to cut through the grimy haze, and the time came to rise. Well, that was the plan, at least.  
  
"I'm sorry..." Joe moaned "I can't get up..."  
  
"Well, TRY!!!" Matt bellowed "We have to keep moving!"  
  
"I KNOW!!!" Joe cried "I AM TRYING!!!"  
  
"It's no good..." Mimi wept "We're just to tired."  
  
"Well you can't just stay here!" Agumon insisted.  
  
"And don't even think of asking us to carry you!" Tai said, backing away "It's all I can manage to stand up myself!"  
  
"There's only one logical way to look at this," Izzy said, weakly "the three of us can't complete the remainder of this journey."  
  
"Well, we can't just leave you!" Sora pleaded.  
  
"We may have too." Gabumon said, solemnly.  
  
"Well, I'm sorry, but that's something I'm simply not prepared to do!" Biyomon said firmly.  
  
"Now, wait a minute!" Gabumon said quickly "Hear me out! The Yokomon said the desert would only take a few days to get across, so we must be almost there! If those of us who can still walk hurry, we can get out to the other side of the desert and bring some water back to the rest of you!"  
  
"And since we'll just be laying around instead of walking," Joe added "we won't use up as much water as you!"  
  
"As much as I personally don't like it," Tentomon said, reluctantly "that sounds like it could work."  
  
"Wha-wha-WAIT!!!" Mimi pleaded "You're not just going to leave us here all by our selves, are you?"  
  
"Don't worry, Mimi!" Palmon said, reassuringly "I'll be right here!"  
  
"And so will I" Sora said, admittedly.  
  
"WHAT?" everyone said in unison.  
  
"Well someone needs to stay who's well enough to take care of them." she explained "Besides, I just can't stand the thought of leaving them here and going on without them."  
  
"But...I...you..." Tai stuttered stupidly.  
  
"Well, if that's what you want...go ahead." Matt said shrugging.  
  
"But...I mean..." Tai continued.  
  
"She's a big girl, Tai." Matt said, patronizingly "She can take care of herself." then, looking over to T.K. called "OK, squirt, let's go!"  
  
T.K. started to get up, but looked over to his ailing comrades and hesitated.  
  
"T.K., come on!" Matt urged.  
  
"Matt, I..." T.K. started, hesitantly "I'm staying too!"  
  
If you think that the group reacted negatively to Sora's announcement, you couldn't imagine the shock from T.K.'s  
  
"WHAT?!?!?!?"  
  
"ARE YOU CRAZY?????"  
  
"YOU CAN'T STAY HERE!!!!"  
  
"T.K.!" Matt whispered through gritted teeth as he ran over to T.K. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm staying!" he repeated.  
  
"But...you...I can't just leave you here!"  
  
"But you can just leave them here?" T.K. said accusingly "Matt, they're our friends!"  
  
Matt just looked away and gave no sign of sharing any of T.K.'s affection "Look, they're not my little brother. It's different with them."  
  
"I don't care!" T.K. insisted "I'm not going!"  
  
"Matt?" Sora said, rushing over to defuse things "He'll be all right! I can look after him."  
  
Matt took a moment to think it over. He didn't for a second doubt that he could trust Sora to look after T.K. in normal circumstances. But these were hardly normal circumstances.  
  
"Matt," Sora insisted "I promise, I'll take good care of him."  
  
"I...uh...." Matt stuttered ".....all right"  
  
"YES!" T.K. shouted "Thanks Matt!!!"  
  
"Well, in that case, we'd better get a move on!" Tai said, tapping Matt on the shoulder.  
  
"OK, I'm coming." Matt sighed, reluctantly.  
  
"Good luck!" Sora called as she watched them fade into the grimy haze, hopping that Matt hadn't misplaced his trust.  
  
After they wad been out of view, T.K. looked up at Sora and asked "Will they be all right?"  
  
"I don't know..." Sora confessed "I hope so..."  
  
It didn't take long for the four water fetchers to regret not staying with the rest of the group. Even if they were sitting thirsty in the middle of the desert, they were still sitting.  
  
"Can't we just take a little break, man?" Tai pleaded.  
  
"No, we've got to keep moving." Matt said, for what seemed liked the millionth time.  
  
"Well, I don't care." Tai said, stubbornly "I'm taking a break."  
  
"Tai, if you even so much as slow down, I swear I will drag you by your moth infested heap of hair."  
  
"`Oh, I'm so scared', give me a break," Tai mocked "you couldn't drag a bag of trash to the dumpster."  
  
"Well," Matt jabbed "if it's your trash, it'd be nothing but smoked up joints and girlie magazines."  
  
"Well, I wouldn't touch your trash to save my life!"  
  
"Like I'd care what would save your life."  
  
"Shouldn't we try to stop them?" Gabumon whispered to Agumon.  
  
"I ain't goin' near that!" Agumon said, cautiously. With that, the two digimon backed off and allowed the insults to fly uninhibited.  
  
"Tai, if you died right now, I'd skin your corpse and make a tent."  
  
"I wouldn't even wait for you to die, I'd drag you back to the others and have a little feast."  
  
"Of course, if we tried that with a string bean like you, we'd have nothing but toothpicks."  
  
"Oh, you should talk, you toe head, chalky white, blondie rail."  
  
"You look like an upside down mop."  
  
"...OK, you lost me."  
  
"Thin as a post all the way up with a tanglly mess at the top."  
  
"That's the best you can do?"  
  
"Well, I've been trying to hold back so it'd stay within your realm of comprehension."  
  
"Oh, please..."  
  
That was by no means the end of the volleys, but, as tempers flared and clear thinking vanished, it quickly became unrecordable. Fortunately, things never came to blows, though the digimon feared it would on several occasions.  
  
Eventually, they became too tired to spare the energy for insults; and silence took over. A suffocating, all inclusive silence; broken only by Tai's occasional humming (and that would only last until it became loud enough for Matt to hear it, at which point, he'd put a quick end to it). Matt didn't try to look for conversation and he wouldn't take up any of the other's offers; he just pressed ahead. Slowly, without his noticing, Matt stopped harboring any hopes of finding his abandoned companions alive when they returned. He didn't try to give up hope, and he didn't entertain the thought that they were dead, he just didn't think about any thing. He just walked.  
  
After all, it's not important whether or no you get anywhere, just that you keep moving. Right?  
  
"I don't have time for you right now." Matt told himself as he marched onward.  
  
Do you really think they'll still be alive when you get back?  
  
"I don't need to think about that, I just need to keep going."  
  
Why should you go if you don't care why? What possible point is there?  
  
"The point is not to stop." he thought reflexively, not truly realizing he had at all.  
  
But how does "not stopping" help you, or anyone else for that matter?  
  
For the first time in what seemed like days, Matt's response actually involved some thought "They're not me...what I do is of no concern to them..."  
  
But you ARE of concern to them.  
  
"HAHAhahaha...very funny."  
  
You don't believe that?  
  
"No. Neither do you."  
  
You never know...  
  
"Yes I do..."  
  
Or, at least, you've told yourself that so long, you think you do.  
  
"I've had help being told."  
  
Yes...I suppose you have... Nothing more was said.  
  
Matt was almost unaware of the passage of time until Gabumon shouted something. Turning, slowly, he found that Tai was missing. After a moment of hesitation, not to consider further action, but simply to regain command of his mind, Matt began to backtrack to find his vanished companion.  
  
Surprisingly, it only took a few steps before Tai's ragged form seeped out of the murky air. He was lying face down in the dirt; still, aside from slow, labored breathing. Agumon turned up in similar condition several steps behind him.  
  
Matt shock his head and tried to rouse Tai with his foot, but succeeded only in getting a slight shiver. After several more pokes, with successively poorer results, Matt leaned over to try for some verbal prodding. It was then that he found that Tai was already speaking:  
  
"...yeah, I know...no, it shouldn't take too long...oh, naw, nothing's wrong, don't worry..."  
  
"What's he talking about?" Gabumon asked.  
  
"Nothing probably." Matt sighed. He had been afraid that Tai would snap again.  
  
"...I'll be back on time, don't worry..." Tai continued, uncontiously "No! Don't worry...you don't have to tape it, I'll be there..."  
  
"Sounds like he's dreaming about TV..." Matt snickered, shaking his head.  
  
"...OK...yeah, I'll see you in a little bit...I'm already on my way...yeah, OK, Kari..."  
  
"Who's Kari?" Gabumon asked.  
  
"His little sister, I think..." Matt said, looking suddenly dark.  
  
"...Yeah, I'll be there soon...don't wait up...no, don't wait. OK?...yeah, I love you too, Kari...bye..."  
  
After that Tai became silent, save his slow breathing. Matt sat hunched over the sleeping boy, deep in thought for the moment; then he got up...  
  
And began to walk away.  
  
"Wait!" Gabumon called "What about them? We can't just leave them!"  
  
"We can, and we will."  
  
"But...but what about Tai?" Gabumon continued "He could die back there!"  
  
"I know!" Matt shouted before adding, in a half whisper "So does he..."  
  
Gabumon didn`t try to convince Matt to stop again; he knew a lost battle when he saw one. Tai vanished from sight quickly, thanks to the opaque air. Matt tried to shut him out of his mind as well figuring there was no point in dwelling the dead, or so onto be. Of course, far be it from Tai to go quietly: once again, a song began to craw, mostly unrecognizable, from his lips. That sound, echoing across the flat, barren sprawl of desert from a person that Matt held no loftily hopes of ever seeing alive again, was one that would return to his mind, at odd times, throughout the rest of his life:  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER"Five to One, baby  
  
One in Five  
  
No one here gets out alive, now  
  
You get yours, baby, I'll get mine  
  
Gonna make it baby, if we try..."***/P  
  
Slowly, too slowly to notice, Matt gave up all hope for anything. That Tai would survive, that the others would survive, that he would. He simply let it all go. He wasn't walking to save anyone's life; he wasn't walking to save his own. He was simply walking because that was what he had been doing, and it didn't please him to stop. He found it unpleasant to think of the slow, gradual death that awaited him, but is was T.K. and the others who intruded on his thoughts. He didn't dwell on them, they were just there. It vexed him to think of T.K., dying slowly, painfully. In a split second, he felt guilty; like he had failed in his responsibility. That only lasted a second, however. The last time he had been a real brother to T.K. was years ago. Since then, he'd just been a distant relative who dropped by on holidays. He had been robed of any responsibility long ago. "Besides" he told himself "it's not like he's alone." Since Tai had left with him, T.K. had been left with a group of truly worthwhile people; naive, perhaps, but still worthwhile. In what little life T.K. had left, he'd be all right with Sora. The flash of envy twards his brother that thought brought about was too quick to make Matt embarrassed.  
  
Matt couldn't have told you how long it was; he had lost all perception of the world around him. He didn't know if Gabumon was still with him, of if he'd collapsed like the others. He couldn't feel the heat around him anymore, he couldn't feel anything. He couldn't see any more. He couldn't feel, he couldn't see, he couldn't hear, he couldn't anything. He didn't think about dying, he didn't think about living. He just thought "Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot...".  
  
Eventually, he didn't even have to think about that. He didn't think period. His legs had been moving with out his help for some time now, so he even let that go. Now, with the last possible need of his conscious mind gone, Matt simply shut down. He was still alive, still moving, but as far as his mind was concerned, Matt was inert. He was an automaton. A self operating puppet. The final thought Matt had while he was still capable of having them was: "At least I lasted longer than Tai..."  
  
And then that was it...  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER****************/P  
  
Gatsumon sat in far to much comfort than should be allowed for one digimon. Letting his stone body sink deep into the giant bean bag chair, he looked over his oasis with great content. Sure, it may not have been the most scenic oasis in the Digiworld, but hey, just because it had lawn flamingos instead of palm trees that didn't mean it was bad. It still had the best water in the desert...OK, the ONLY water in the desert, but that was how they knew it was the best! As he sat looking over it's cool blue waters and breathed the dry desert air, Gatsumon felt perfectly serene.  
  
And frankly, it was driving him nuts.  
  
"Aawwww, MAN! I'm BORED!" he yawned "I have got to find something to do..."  
  
"YO! Gatsumon! Wazzzap?" right on cue, Pumkimon roared up in his big, red, fiery monstrosity of a ride: Pea  
  
"Hey, dude!" Gatsumon laughed as his pal leapt from the cab "What's happenin'?"  
  
"I dunno," Pumkinmon said "What's up with you?"  
  
"Nothing much, how `bout you?"  
  
"I'm all right, how about you?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm OK, how `bout you, dude?"  
  
"I'm all right. You?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"OK..."  
  
"Hmmm..."  
  
Gatsumon and Pumkinmon stood scratching their heads for some time trying to come up with something to do. Finally, Pumkinmon asked "You wanna cruse around?"  
  
"Yeah, that's cool."  
  
Pea roared across the desert like a sensitive Kuagumon with a Candelmon's head stuck in his rear end.  
  
"WWWOOOOHHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Gatsumon laughed.  
  
"Dude, nothing beats crusin' as snot blowin' speed in the desert, `eh, man?" Pumkinmon shouted over the roar of the engine.  
  
"You know it, bro!" Gatsumon shouted back "We got the whole place to ourselves!"  
  
"Yeah," Pumkinmon agreed "it's just you, me, and that guy over there."  
  
It took a few moments for Gatsumon to notice what Pumkinmon had said "Uhh...I think you mean `just you, and me', right?"  
  
"Naw," Pumkinmon corrected "There was some other guy back there."  
  
"Oh, OK."  
  
After a few more moments of silence (Well, the engine was still at a million decibels, but you know what I mean) the two dense motorists cried in unison "HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!!!"  
  
After a quick turn around, Pumkinmon and Gatsumon found a bizarre looking fellow stumbling slowly across the sand.  
  
"Hey, dude!" Pumkinmon shouted as he and Gatsumon leapt from the driver seat "Are you all right?"  
  
"Does he look all right?" Gatsumon said, eyeing the creature's slow, unsteady walk.  
  
"He doesn't look like anything." Pumkinmon replied "At least, nothing I've ever seen."  
  
"It doesn't look like he can hear us." Gatsumon commented as the strange fellow walked past them.  
  
"Hey, dude!" Pumkinmon said, louder as he taped the newcomer on the leg. Whatever the thing was, it must not have been built very sturdy, because it toppled as soon as he touched it.  
  
"Awww, man!" Gatsumon shouted "Now look what you did!"  
  
"Hey, it's not my fault!" Pumkinmon shouted, defensively "He must be really tired."  
  
"Well, what should we do with him?" Gatsumon asked "Try to stand him back up again?"  
  
"HEY!" Pumkinmon shouted "Let's take him back to the oasis and give him a drink!"  
  
"Yeah! That's a great idea!"  
  
"Now...how are we going to get him in Pea?"  
  
"Dude, don't look at me. He's way bigger than me..."  
  
P ALIGN = CENTER************************/P  
  
Matt hopped off the bus carefully, trying both to avoid being trampled by his liberated classmates and to avoid trampling a few himself. Emerging relatively unscathed, Matt made his way back home through leafy Grant Park. This picturesque little community looked perfectly normal while you were in the middle of it, Matt reflected with a grin, but once you'd been walking for more than a few minutes, it started to get a bit strange. There was just something strange about seeing a cozy little suburban street, complete with all the "Leave it to Beaver" trimmings, that had the peaks of sky scrapers jutting up just behind them. Of course, given what a common, everyday occurrence (read that with sarcasm) a serene neighborhood like that was in the middle of metro Atlanta, Matt figured he didn't have any business being picky. It sure beat being back in the digiworld (where?), he added with a contented grin. At least here you could find a drink machine that worked (he sure was thirsty). Almost before Matt realized it, he was back in front of their house (that was quick). It looked like Mom and Dad were already back, both the cars were there (where did they worked again?). Of course, if they were back, that meant T.K. was back too. He was probably out back with Dad at the grill. Dad had made it a family tradition that, at least once a week, he fired the thing up. He couldn't even work a microwave in the kitchen, but out in the back yard he was a wizard. Matt couldn't tell what he was grilling, but it smelled good enough. He's stomach growled as he considered the possibilities, well, first he'd grab something to drink (why was he so thirsty?) and then he'd go find out. As he walked up the creaky old steps (but the house wasn't that old) he reached for the doorknob. Then, just before he took it in his hand, everything exploded.  
  
With a sudden, terrifying blast of cold, Matt was abruptly jolted back to consciousness. He was awake; in the desert; in the digiworld. He couldn't help but be amused at the obvious ridiculousness of the dream. He hadn't lived in Atlanta since he was six, the old house had been torn down shortly afterwards, and Grant Park was never that nice looking. He couldn't move his body and probably wouldn't have been able to feel it if he had. Slowly, lazily Matt opened his eyes to find out what was going on. All he could see was this faint, rippling glow. Slowly as his sight began to come into focus, the glow became brighter and moved with greater fluidity. For a moment, Matt entertained the thought that he had died. However, the slight but steadily increasing pain through his body quickly led him to disregard that theory. If he was in heaven, he wouldn't be hurting at all; and if he wasn't...well, he'd probably hurt quite a bit more. The light continued to get brighter as the rippling substance started to take on a bluish look. It almost looked like water. Then, after an embarrassingly long time, it finally got through Matt's tired skull.  
  
It was water!  
  
Without a second thought, Matt planted his head into the cool, clear pool and refused to come up until he was in actual danger of drowning. Then, after coming up just long enough to take a breath, he did it again. And again. After the fourth binge, Matt felt momentarily saturated enough to take a short brake. Looking around he found himself at a large oasis. Surrounding the perfectly circular pool was a ring of extremely unkempt grass, littered with tacky lawn ornaments. Not too far to his left, Matt saw a old trailer almost buried under a mountain of worthless looking brick- a-brack. Over to his right, there was a similarly ragged looking contraption that vaguely resembled a large monster truck. It also resembled an over turned trash can, vaguely. Be side it were several digimon. One of them seemed to be a living Halloween costume. It's body seemed to be made of poorly stitched together sack cloth, and it has headed with a jack o'lantern that bore an ax in the forehead. Next to it was a fellow who seemed to be a living rock garden. Along with them Matt saw Gabumon.  
  
"GABUMON!" Matt called, hoarsely, as he tried to stand.  
  
"Whoa!" Gabumon shouted as he ran over to his comrade "Wait a minute! You need to rest!"  
  
"Who are those two guys?" Matt coughed as Gabumon urged him down on his back.  
  
"Meet our saviors!" Gabumon explained happily "The one on the left is Pumkinmon and the guy on the right is Gatsumon! They're the ones who found us!"  
  
"Those two..." Matt repeated, half consciously "What are they doing?"  
  
"We're getting ready to go pick up the others!" Gabumon said, quite pleased  
  
"Those two tell me that they know how to find the temple the Yokomon told us about!"  
  
Matt tried to say something, but his voice gave out on him. Within a few moments, everything had given out and Matt had fallen asleep. By the time Matt had awoken, the three digimon had loaded him onto the freakish looking truck thing, and they were all speeding back into the murky cloud that covered the dessert they had been in.  
  
"So who are you guys, exactly?" Matt shouted, of tried to shout, over the monstrous roar of the machine's engine.  
  
"Didn't your pal tell you?" Pumkinmon asked.  
  
"Well, he gave me your names, but that was it."  
  
"Well...uh...actually, that's about all there is to tell."  
  
"I mean, what do you do?"  
  
"Uh..." Gatsumon replied stupidly "Nothing much really..."  
  
"Nothing at all?"  
  
"...nope, I don't think so."  
  
"Great, our `saviors' are the slacker squad."  
  
"Heads up!" Gabumon shouted "I see Tai up ahead!"  
  
Of course, given the incredible speeds at which they were traveling, the wannabe rescue team was almost on top him by the time Gabumon had finished his message. Both Tai and Agumon were in roughly the same condition as Matt had reportedly been when he was recovered. As the other digimon loaded the almost dead duo into the vehicle, Matt couldn't help but feel ashamed that he'd allowed himself to become as weak and vulnerable as the two figures he now saw before him.  
  
"Hey what's going on?" Agumon asked weakly as they speed of in the direction of the others.  
  
"We're saving your lives, thank you very much." Gatsumon called back from the driver's seat.  
  
"You got that right!" Pumkinmon, who had also crammed himself into the driver's seat, shouted.  
  
"Where...where are the others?" Agumon asked Gabumon.  
  
"We're going to get them right now." Gabumon explained "After that, we're finding this temple place in style!"  
  
"Great, wake me up when we get there..." Agumon yawned, rolling over.  
  
T.K. lay looking up at the sky. Well, he imagined that that's where the sky would be if that ugly haze wasn't there. By now, only he and Patamon were still awake. Joe, Mimi, and Izzy had fallen asleep not long after Matt and Tai had left. Without much else to do, their digimon had gone to sleep not much later. Sora had held on for a long time; longer than Biyomon, but she hadn't been able to stay awake long enough. "You be a big boy now," She'd told him  
  
"Matt will be back any minute now." So he'd waited. And waited. And waited.  
  
"Patamon?" T.K. whispered, since he was too thirsty to do anything else "What do you think is holding up Matt?"  
  
"I dunno..." Patamon sighed "Maybe he's bringing back so much water, it's taking him a long time to carry it?"  
  
"I hope that's it..." T.K. said, not really thinking that was what was happening, but not wanting to discourage Patamon "Hurry up, Matt."  
  
"Hey, T.K.!" Patamon said, warily "I think it may be starting to rain!"  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Listen! I think I hear thunder!"  
  
"Patamon..." T.K. said, shaking his head "It doesn't rain in the middle of the desert!"  
  
"Well then, what's making that noise?"  
  
T.K. started to suggest that Patamon was imagining it, when he started to hear it too. When he sat up to look around, T.K. saw some kind of...well, he didn't know what it was, just that it was big. Big and loud. Big and loud and headed straight at them!  
  
"Wha- Wha...WHAT'S THAT!?!?!?"  
  
"I- I don't know!" Patamon stuttered.  
  
"Well what ever it is, I don't think I like it!"  
  
"Me neither!"  
  
"What'll we do, Patamon?"  
  
But, by then, it was too late since the thing was right there next to them. It looked like some kind of giant car except without doors or windows or a roof. Basically, it was a big engine with wheels and seats on the top, too high for them to see.  
  
"Uh...Hello?" T.K. called, timidly.  
  
"T.K.? Is that you?" a voice called down.  
  
"MATT!!!" T.K. almost screamed, recognizing the voice in an instant.  
  
Within that instant, Matt had leapt down the dizzying height of the contraption and was hugging T.K. fiercely.  
  
"Matt!!! You're here!!!" T.K. laughed over and over "I was so worried about you!"  
  
"Sorry to scare you, little guy." Matt whispered, tenderly running his hand through T.K.'s messy hair. Then, suddenly, Matt stiffened up and shouted  
  
"Well? What are we just standing around here for? Let's move!"  
  
Within minutes, everyone had been loaded into the Pea and they were screaming off through the desert. Although Joe and Mimi were very suspicious of their mode of transportation, they grudgingly admitted that it was better than walking. The others were more than happy to ride from the start.  
  
"So, you're sure you know where this temple is?" Sora asked their drivers.  
  
"Oh, you bet!" Gatsumon shouted "We drop by the temple of Quadra all the time!"  
  
"It's a great place for parties!" Pumkinmon added.  
  
"What purpose does the temple serve?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Ga-wha?" Gatsumon asked, without the slightest hint of comprehension.  
  
"What's the place for?" Tai clarified.  
  
"Gee, I dunno..." Pumkinmon answered "I always figured it was just there."  
  
"Have you noticed that no one seems to have a clue what anything is for around here?" Joe asked.  
  
"Well, who said everything absolutely had to be for for a purpose?" Gomamon asked back.  
  
"I do, for one." Joe said, flatly.  
  
"Who cares what it's for as long as it has air conditioning!" Mimi said.  
  
"And a washing machine!" Palmon added.  
  
"Are you kidding, dude? That place has everything!" Pumkinmon shouted.  
  
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get there!" Agumon yelled to the drivers as they speed into the desert night.  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
Additional song credits:  
  
* "Water"  
  
by Pete Townshend  
  
From the boxed set "Thirty Years of Maximum R&B" by The Who (originally released as the B-side of the single "5:15")  
  
** "May This Be Love"  
  
by Jimi Hendrix  
  
From the album "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience  
  
*** "Five To One"  
  
by Jim Morrison  
  
From the album "Waiting For the Sun" by The Doors 


	6. Runnin' 'Round This World

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter six  
  
His guitar swung across his back  
  
his dusty boots are his Cadilac  
  
a pavement here just a blowin' in the wind  
  
ain't seen a bed in so long it's a sin  
  
He left home when he was seventeen  
  
the rest of the world he long to see  
  
and everyone who knows, boss,  
  
a rolling stone gathers no moss  
  
Now you'd probably call him a tramp  
  
but it goes a little deeper than that  
  
he's a... Highway Chile!  
  
Now some people say he had a girl back home  
  
who messed around and did him pretty wrong  
  
they tell me it kinda hurt him bad  
  
it kind made him feel pretty sad  
  
I couldn't say what went through his mind  
  
anyway, he left the world behind  
  
and everybody knows the same old story  
  
another way you can't lose in glory  
  
Now you'd probably call him a tramp  
  
but I know it goes a little deeper than that  
  
he's a... Highway Chile!  
  
Walk on brother...  
  
His ol' guitar swung across his back  
  
his dusty boots are his Cadilac  
  
aflaimin' hair just a blowin' in the wind  
  
ain't seen a bed in so long it's a sin  
  
Now you'd probably call him a tramp  
  
but I know it goes a little deeper than that  
  
he's a... Highway Chile!  
  
"Highway Chile" (not pronounced like the food, but like "child" said lazy: without the "D")  
  
By Jimi Hendrix  
  
From the album "Are You Experienced?" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience  
  
Chapter six:  
  
Runnin' 'Round This World  
  
In the suffocating darkness of Infinity Mountain, The minions of Devimon stood at blank, solemn attention. Devimon didn't really need to have his slaves where he could see them to give orders, he could do that in an instant thanks to the black gears, but he enjoyed it anyway. It was a very gratifying experience to view his slaves all at once. Looking out at the rows of digimon lined below him (well, not looking exactly, it was far to dark for that. It's impossible to explain in terms we would understand, but he was still able to "see" them in a sense), Devimon felt unfairly pleased with himself. So many digimon...all his. And soon there would be a whole island of them.  
  
Then a whole world...  
  
Devimon's mouth watered a toxic oily substance as the thought of it. The entire island alone would be more than enough for most digimon, but this was not "most digimon" being dealt with here. Nothing short of complete, total domination would do. Even Devimon himself felt slightly overwhelmed at the thought. But it was a good kind of overwhelmed; like a starving child viewing a might feast set before him. That analogy worked especially well; the starving part at least. Devimon didn't simply want power, he NEEDED it. Every fiber of his being craved it like other digimon craved food and water. It was his nature to command, like it was the nature of a Dolphmon to swim. He had to have it. The others hadn't understood, they couldn't understand. After the revolution, when the Digiworld was divided, they gave Devimon the smallest land mass; justifying themselves with the flimsiest of excuses.  
  
"Don't make such a fuss." Myotismon had sneered "File Island may only be half the size of the other sovereignties, but it's resources are twice that of the others. It's all very even in the end."  
  
Of course, Myotismon had neglected to mention that it was only the other's who's sovereignties lacked resources; his personal territory was just as plentiful as it was huge. But then what else could he have expected from a grandiose, overbearing wretch like that? Myotismon's thirst for power was just as strong as Devimon's. As much as he hated the fool, Devimon had to respect that. But then, that was all he had to respect. He hadn't been able to convince the others of how unfairly they were being treated, those fools still felt that they owed Myotismon for leading them in the war against the Dark Masters, and Devimon wasn't anywhere near strong enough to stand up to him alone.  
  
But it wouldn't be so for long.  
  
Devimon knew that the darkness he served wouldn't allow this to last forever. Myotismon and the others my have been born of darkness like him, but they weren't it disciples. No, those infidels fully relied on there own pathetic strength and knowledge. But no Digimon's amount of strength and intelligence could have matched that of the darkness. Certainly, it couldn't have created the Black Gears. That great gift was known only to the mighty darkness, and had been bestowed exclusively to it's faithful disciple Devimon. And now, it had allowed him to build an army already unlike anything File Island had witnessed. It was only a matter of time before the entire Digital World would witness it as well. Those pathetic heretics would not hold power much longer.  
  
Soon, a rightful ruler would take there place. One who recognized the darkness' true might.  
  
He would rule.  
  
By the all powerful darkness that he lived to serve, he would rule!  
  
*********************  
  
The Pea roared along through the dessert with a sound vaguely reminiscent of a drunk hippopotamus trampling through a piano store while listening to Guns and Roses. The last part was no doubt due to the fact that they were, in fact, listening to that very thing. Pumkinmon and Gatsumon had insisted on stopping at an unusual looking vending machine that dispersed CDs to pick up their "Sympathy For The Devil" single, which was why they were still roaring towards there destination instead of already being there. Tai was certainly making the most of it, leaping on the chance to display his unique skill at playing air guitar.  
  
"Make it speak, brother! Make it speak!" Pumkinmon laughed, providing some air bass accompaniment.  
  
"Too bad I didn't bring my lighter." Sora joked watching the comical pair.  
  
"Too bad I didn't bring my ear plugs!" Mimi trying to block out the horrendous, deafening roar (and she wasn't too keen on the engine's noise either.).  
  
"Hey, at least he's not back here anymore!" Palmon pointed out "If he had tugged on my petals one more time, I would definitely have done something I'd have regretted later!"  
  
"Well, you shouldn't have had your head under my arm!" Tai shouted back.  
  
"There's plenty of other places you could have sat!" Palmon challenged "You were just acting up!"  
  
"HEY!" Tai yelled "I haven't done anything bad all day! Well, not for the last five minutes, at least!"  
  
"Hey, just shut up and play your guitar!" Matt shot back.  
  
"Oh, a Frank Zappa fan, huh?" Tai laughed as he resumed his seat.  
  
"I'm sure that meant something, but I don't have a clue what." Sora said to herself, trying to figure that barb out ("Shut Up and Play Your Guitar" was a boxed set of Frank Zappa material, in case you're wondering).  
  
"Are we there yet?" T.K. asked unconsciously for the umpteenth time.  
  
"Beats me..." Patamon answered "All this desert looks the same to me."  
  
"Gee..." T.K. thought "I hope we're not going around in circles."  
  
"When you're in the middle of nowhere, you could be going in a straight line, and still be as lost as if you were going in a circle." Joe pointed out.  
  
"Well, even if we're going nowhere, at least we're making great time!" Tentomon offered.  
  
"What are you guys worrying about?" Biyomon scolded "I, for one, have great faith in our guides! The obviously are quite familiar with this area and seem quite reliable!"  
  
"Uh huh. Sure. Real reliable." Matt said dismissively as he pointed to their guides, both of whom were, by this point, in the middle of a three man mosh pit with Tai.  
  
"HEY, GUYS!" Gabumon shouted "SHOULDN'T AT LEAST ONE OF YOU BE DRIVING THIS THING?"  
  
"Naw!" Gatsumon shouted back "The Pea knows where we're going!"  
  
"OK, I am this close to panicking." Joe said, teetering on the edge "Don't you push me."  
  
"When aren't you?" Gomamon mocked.  
  
"Tai, quit being a bad influence!" Matt shouted at the shaggy hared mosher.  
  
"Whaddaya gonna do make me?" Tai shot back.  
  
"Hey, the last thing you need to be doing is encouraging me." Matt warned.  
  
"You're simply adding to his delinquency, Matt" Izzy admonished.  
  
"Actually, Matt rather strikes me as a bit of a delinquent himself." Tentomon mussed.  
  
"What's a delinquent?" Patamon asked.  
  
"Somebody who acts like Tai and looks like Matt." Joe explained.  
  
"So what's this 'adding' stuff about?"  
  
"I think it means that Matt's just making things worse by pushing Tai around." Gomamon added.  
  
"Hey, yeah!" Tai responded, eager to shift blame off himself "It's not my fault, it's this bad crowd I'm hanging with!"  
  
"Of course!" Matt shot back, with a mock sense of surprise "You wouldn't look any where near as bad if you just weren't surrounded with such better people!"  
  
"Matt..." Sora groaned.  
  
"Hey, don't mess with me, pal." Tai warned "I haven't done anything bad in five minutes and I'm trying to make it six, so I don't need you messing things up!"  
  
"I'd have to admit, that doesn't sound like an easy task." Izzy pointed out "Not for you at least."  
  
"GASP!" Gomamon shouted, thoroughly shocked "Was that a JOKE I heard coming out of you?"  
  
"Naw!" Matt said, teasing "Impossible! Not from our Izzy"  
  
"Maybe all this heat's finally getting to him!" Agumon offered.  
  
"Oh, come on guys," Tai said, plopping himself down beside Izzy and giving him a hearty whack on the back "We all know what a wild and crazy guy Izzy is under his smarty exterior. Ain't that right?" Instead of answering, Izzy simply blushed, thoroughly regretting having ever said a thing.  
  
"Hey! Leave Izzy alone, guys!" Tentomon pleaded, seeing his pal's obvious embarrassment.  
  
"What?" Tai responded "Can't you guys take a joke?"  
  
"Well, there are some jokes that just aren't meant to be taken!" Tentomon insisted.  
  
"That would require a hint of good taste," Matt warned "so don't be expecting anything like that from Tai anytime soon."  
  
"Hey, watch it smart guy." Tai shot back, coldly.  
  
"Wait," Matt scoffed "you're telling me to watch it?"  
  
"You wanna make something of it?" Tai challenged.  
  
"You just say when, boy-o" Matt said, standing up.  
  
"Now's fine with me." Tai answered, trying to meet Matt eye too eye (a difficult task, as Matt was a good five inches taller).  
  
"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!" Sora shouted, darting in between the two "All right, that's enough out of both of you!"  
  
"Oh, come on Sora." Tai sighed shaking his head.  
  
"Hey," Sora said forcefully "don't you make me stop this...whatever it is."  
  
"Waitta minute!" Gatsumon shouted "We're the ones driving this 'whatever it is'!"  
  
"Easy pall." Matt warned the drivers "If Sora really wanted this thing to stop, it would have stopped a long time ago!"  
  
"Hey, can't nobody tell us what to do when we're driving!" Pumkinmon laughed.  
  
"YEAH!" Gatsumon concurred "What's she gonna do? Make us?"  
  
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" the rest of the passengers screamed, fearing as much for their own safety as for their drivers'.  
  
"You do NOT want to go there, buddy!" Mimi warned urgently.  
  
"Duh... what?" Pumkinmon stuttered stupidly.  
  
"Trust me!" Matt added "That is a bridge you do not want to cross!"  
  
"Uh...OK..." Pumkinmon and Gatsumon agreed, figuring that they didn't really want to know what the meant as the others resumed their seats.  
  
"I'm think I've gotten a reputation around here, and I'm not sure I like it." Sora sighed to herself.  
  
"Gee, I'd kill for a reputation like that..." Gomamon said.  
  
*******************  
  
Eventually, the motley crew managed to arrive at their destination before anyone got killed. Unfortunately, that destination didn't exactly live up to the traveler's expectations. They pulled up at the base of a steep incline that, while obviously natural, bore a suprising resemblance to the Great Wall of China. None of the group could see what rested on the top of the dry, sandy incline thanks to it's tremendous height. Nor could anyone see how far it stretched to either side.  
  
"Well, here we are!" Pumkinmon shouted as the Pea screeched to a stop.  
  
"Yeah, but where's that?" Matt asked.  
  
"I hope you don't mean that your 'temple' is just a big cliff." Mimi complained.  
  
"What are you crazy?" Gatsumon laughed "Of course not! It's up on the top!"  
  
"You mean we have to climb this thing?" Joe asked, suddenly feeling quite weak.  
  
"Well, not actually climb," Pumkinmon explained "but there are a lot of stares."  
  
"Um... exactly how many stares constitutes 'a lot'?" Tentomon inquired.  
  
"Oh, I dunno..." Gatsumon mussed "like a few hundred or something."  
  
"Please tell me that that was just their sick sense of humor..." Mimi begged to no one in particular.  
  
Of course, if it was anyone's sick sense of humor, it was who ever built the stares in the first place. Had they simply gone straight up, there probably wouldn't have been anywhere near as many steps as there actually were. Unfortunately, "straight" didn't seem to have been in the architect's vocabulary.  
  
"Why the hell did they have to make these steps so damn twisty?" Mimi whined.  
  
"It's like for defense or something." Pumkinmon tried to explain.  
  
"Yeah, it's too keep people out!" Gatsumon agreed.  
  
"Well, in that case, it's a good idea!" Agumon complained "I sure wouldn't want to climb all this unless I had too."  
  
"Why would you want to build a temple and then try to keep people out?" Patamon asked.  
  
"It's probably not meant to keep everybody out," Gabumon guessed "just thieves or the like. Since they would be too lazy to actually work for a living anyway, whoever built these probably figured that they'd be too lazy to try to climb all these."  
  
"Yeah! What he said!" Pumkinmon agreed "There's a bunch of really valuable stuff in there."  
  
"Well, couldn't they just lock the door?" Palmon asked, panting.  
  
"I don't think these kinds of things are supposed to be locked." Sora offered.  
  
"Well, I really don't care why they built this place up here, I still say it's stupid!" Mimi insisted "They should have just built this temple on the ground!"  
  
"And let everything get stolen and have to close the place?" Matt pointed out.  
  
"Well, it'd be much more convenient until then." Mimi continued to insist.  
  
"'Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand;  
  
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!'"  
  
Izzy quoted, recalling an old poetry lesson he'd once heard.  
  
"HEY! Are you talking about me back there?" Mimi shouted.  
  
"No." Izzy answered quite truthfully. He was positive that Edna St. Vincent Millay didn't have Mimi in mind when she wrote that.  
  
"That makes two jokes today." Matt observed, getting it even if Mimi hadn't.  
  
"What happened?" Tai asked "Did some impostor sneak up while you were out in the dessert and swap places?"  
  
"Oh, please..." Izzy muttered to himself.  
  
"Why can't you two just leave Izzy alone?" Tentomon fused.  
  
"Hey, I don't know what's up with Matt, but I'm just trying to figure out what's going on." Tai said, defensively "Izzy making a joke is about as freaky as seeing Matt smile would be...Well, OK, maybe not that freaky, but you know..."  
  
"Well, frankly, I don't think it's any of your business!" Tentomon scolded as he scattered back over to Izzy.  
  
"Thank you." Izzy whispered, touched at how the digimon had defended him.  
  
"Oh, don't mention it." Tentomon insisted. Though, when Izzy then responded with silence, he added "Well, if you insist, I guess you can mention it just a little bit..."  
  
"All right," Izzy replied, amused "I thought that was a very thoughtful thing for you to do."  
  
"Well, I couldn't simply sit idly by and let those two just gang up on you, could I?"  
  
Izzy started to point out that he very well could have: there had been plenty of instances where other people had, but he thought better of it and didn't.  
  
"All though," Tentomon added "I must admit, I do understand their curiosity. You really haven't been your self today."  
  
Izzy thought for a moment before replying "No...I suppose I really haven't."  
  
"So what's the matter?" Tentomon inquired.  
  
"Well, here, let me show you." Izzy said as he reached into his backpack and removed a strange, flat, rectangular object. It seemed to be made of some kind of plastic and was mostly a glossy white with translucent orange highlights.  
  
"Um...Izzy?" Tentomon asked, somewhat confused "What in heaven's name is that?"  
  
"It's a laptop." Izzy explained, noting Tentomon's confusion "A kind of computer."  
  
"All right..." Tentomon confessed, now totally baffled "That means absolutely nothing to me."  
  
Izzy attempted to elaborate, but suddenly found himself at a loss. He'd often tried to explain the more complex workings of computers to others who were having difficulty comprehending it, but even they understood the basics. If fact, Izzy doubted that it was even possible that there could be a single person existing in all of Tokyo who didn't know what a computer was. Still, Izzy tried valiantly to explain:  
  
"Well, a computer is a device used to process information-"  
  
"Why would some one need a device to do that?" Tentomon asked "You're head processes more information that any device I've ever seen."  
  
"No, no!" Izzy said, starting over "You can input and store information in it."  
  
"Once again, why do you need something else to do that? You've got more information in you than I ever thought possible." Tentomon said, trying as hard as he could to grasp what Izzy was getting at, but just not managing to do it  
  
"Do you just keep what you don't need in there?"  
  
"Well, sort of...but I don't think you really understand." Izzy said, realizing that Tentomon seemed to be picturing some kind of physical relation between the computer and his brain "Let me start over: a computer serves many more purposes than just an information receptacle, it can be used to store music - create it, actually -, you can communicate with other people over great distances, you can surf the internet -"  
  
"And just who or what is that?" Tentomon asked of this latest thing brought up.  
  
"Nothing. Never mind..." Izzy said, realizing that, given the difficulty of explaining a simple computer, there was going to be no way that he could even scratch the surface of the internet.  
  
"Umm...OK... look, Izzy, you really don't have to explain if you don't want to..."  
  
"No, it's all right, I want too... it's just a little difficult."  
  
"Well, is there any way you can just give me the bare essentials?"  
  
"I can!" Tai shouted from behind "A computer is a horrible, terrifying menace that makes everything that comes into contact with hopelessly cluttered and unusable, it allows weirdoes from who knows where to spy on you from anywhere, and it sneaks into your house in the middle of the night and everyone tells you that you have to play around with. Then, once you give in, you get addicted to it and it takes over your life!"  
  
"Oh, I see." Tentomon answered "That would definitely explain this odd behavior."  
  
"What?" Izzy asked, not sure whether he was more amazed by Tai's sarcastic explanation, or that Tentomon seemed to have fallen for it.  
  
"Well, if I woke up one morning and found out that one of those creatures had snuck into my backpack, I'd be quite annoyed as well." Tentomon elaborated.  
  
"NO, NO, NO!" Izzy said, shaking his head "Tai was simply being his usual, difficult self! A computer is an incredibly useful tool that, if you ask me, is totally indispensable in modern day life."  
  
"Uh...OK." Tentomon agreed, deciding that if Izzy thought it was important, there really wasn't any need to be questioning that "So what seems to be the problem?"  
  
"Allow me to demonstrate..." Izzy said as he opened the laptop. Immediately, the boot up procedure began. After roughly a minute, it had completed and the screen went blank.  
  
"Well, that was...interesting." Tentomon remarked, now quite curious "So what happens?"  
  
"Nothing." Izzy answered "That's just the problem. The finder should appear now and allow for access to all the programs, but instead, all that happens is this." With that, he pointed to a small, rectangular symbol flashing in the corner of the screen "That indicates that there is insufficient battery power for the computer to function."  
  
"Well, there's your problem right there, Einstein," Tai shouted "you're out of batteries!"  
  
"How, exactly, could it have booted up if it were out of batteries?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Uh...well...I dunno." Tai stuttered, somewhat bashfully.  
  
"You see," Izzy explained to Tentomon "if the laptop actually was out of batteries, this symbol would have shone up immediately as there wouldn't have been enough power to boot up. Therefore, this warning cannot be accurate."  
  
"So what's going on?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"Well, if I knew that, it wouldn't be a problem, would it?" Izzy pointed out.  
  
"Um, I suppose not..." Tentomon mused before asking "Well, if that's the case, why are you only now getting upset about it?"  
  
"I haven't had a chance to check my computer until now." Izzy explained "I've been busy being upset about other things."  
  
"Well, I suppose I can understand how multiple attempts on your life can be a bit distracting..." Tentomon said sarcastically.  
  
"Does any one have any idea how far it is to the top?" Agumon asked, trying to catch his breath.  
  
"Not close enough..." Joe responded.  
  
Thinking about how weary everyone was becoming brought an unusual question to Sora's mind "Hey, Biyomon; why don't you just fly up to the top and find out?"  
  
"Oh, Sora," Biyomon answered "Do you honestly expect me to just lie around at the top and leave you here still walking?"  
  
"I bet she just can't go that far!" Gomamon shot back.  
  
"I bet she can too!" Palmon responded.  
  
"No she can't!" Gomamon insisted "And I know she can't because that's why Seadramon iced her wing up: `cause she couldn't get high enough!"  
  
"That only happened because he fired so quickly!" Biyomon replied.  
  
"OK, then," Matt said, joining in "prove it."  
  
"Like I already said," Biyomon said admittedly "I'm not going to leave Sora behind and have things easy at her expense!"  
  
"Oh, please." Gomamon scoffed "It's not like you'd be leaving her to be eaten alive or something. If I could fly right now, I'd be up there in a second! No offense, Joe."  
  
"None taken." Joe assured him "I'd do that to you in a second."  
  
"Thanks...I think..." Gomamon said "Anyway, you're just trying to look good while she's around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!"  
  
"Well, you can stick to it all you want, because, while I'd never dream of leaving Sora, I let you eat my dust in a second!" Biyomon shot back playfully, sticking her tongue out afterwards.  
  
"Boy," Mimi observed "Somebody's inner child is having a tantrum!"  
  
"Don't you mean `inner digi-egg?'" Gabumon asked.  
  
"Well, whatever it is, it's sure getting her riled up!" Palmon said.  
  
"I can't help getting riled up when someone questions my integrity." Biyomon explained.  
  
"It's your aerodynamics they're questioning." Tentomon corrected.  
  
"No, they think she can't fly." T.K. corrected again.  
  
After an odd silence, Matt shouted behind him "Hey, Tai, you missed your cue. You dead back there or something?"  
  
Tai, who had been in the middle of a deep swig from his canteen, replied "Oops sorry. OK, here goes: `Thank you professor T.K. We're all glad you got rid of the big words so us dumb people can know what's happening.' You happy now, Matt?"  
  
"Not really." Matt said, shaking his head "I was kind of hopping you were dead so we could have your water."  
  
"Well, I'm glad to know you care!" Tai joked.  
  
"Say, wait a minute..." Biyomon thought "Just what is an `inner child' anyway?"  
  
"It's this little voice in your head that reminds you what you were like back before you grew up and started conforming to stuff and things like that." Mimi explained.  
  
"Uhhh...that didn't make any sense." Biyomon said "Is that what your inner child is like?"  
  
This time, Tai didn't miss a beat "Seeing what her outer teenager's like, I'd hate to see her inner child one way or another!"  
  
"Oh, shut up!" Mimi shouted.  
  
"Now who's having a tantrum?" Matt asked.  
  
"Hey, dudes," Pumkinmon interrupted "don't let me interrupt. I just thought you'd like to know that we're at the top."  
  
"WHAT?" everyone shouted in unison.  
  
"He said-" Gatsumon started.  
  
"We know..." they said, almost in unison again.  
  
Sure enough, the Temple of Quadra stood right in front of them, and by grandeur alone, it certainly seemed worth the trip. The entire structure brought to mind every cathedral any of them had ever seen; or, at least, the giant doors did. The tall and narrow gates sprouted from the ground like to monstrous blades and, like the doorways and walls that flanked them, shone in a mesmerizing light that created an almost fiery effect. All along the sides, razor pointed spires jutted into the sky like lightning frozen in place. Try as the might, none of the astonished travelers could find an end of the monstrous palace to either side of them, it seemed to stretch as far as the wall of rock upon which it sat.  
  
"Well, you just gonna stand there and stare, or are you going to inside?" Gatsumon asked.  
  
Once inside, they found that, while it was definitely huge, the temple was far from being as giant as it had seemed from out side. The ceiling, roughly four stories above their heads was blanketed in bizarre chandeliers that almost touched the many exotic pillars that sprouted from the floor. Inside the translucent pillars, a great many works of art could be seen; much to the human's surprise, as they could recognize most of them immediately (the Venus De Milo, Michelangelo's David, etc.). The entire temple seemed to look like a cross between the Vatican and the Louver.  
  
"Wooooow..." T.K. said, in awe "This place looks even cooler on the inside!"  
  
"Boy, I'll say!" Patamon agreed.  
  
"This looks like a church..." Sora commented "But I've never seen a church like this..."  
  
"I used to go to First Baptist Atlanta, and that place is big as a factory, but this beats everything!" Matt concurred.  
  
Then, sapping everyone out of their awe, Tai began to laugh uncontrollably.  
  
"Now what?" Matt snapped.  
  
"Just-just listen!" Tai giggled. Matt stood quietly for a moment, and , sure enough, he could here the faint echoes of music slinking through the winding gold rafters.  
  
"OK, so what?" Matt asked.  
  
"It's `Stairway to Heaven', stupid!" Tai laughed.  
  
Instead of answering, Matt just sighed and shook his head.  
  
Meanwhile, Sora had wandered into the middle of the cathedral and found something that really didn't seem to fit. Jutting out of the intricately tiled floor was a large stone sculpture, surrounded by several elaborate gold basins, each of which housing a small flame and rimed with a strange writing Sora didn't recognize. In sharp contrast to the lavish air of the temple and the carefully crafted lighting, the stone it's self was simply a plain, dull gray; appearing to be rough and pebbly from a distance, but actually quite smooth at the touch. As Sora ran her hands along the dark, smooth surface, she noticed that in almost seemed to vibrate. Not enough to notice for very long, but it still seemed to give an almost shivering sensation upon touching it. The only thing that seemed to fit about the stone was a tarnished gold band that wrapped around it.  
  
"I wonder what this thing is?" Sora muttered to herself as she walked around the stone.  
  
"I don't know," Biyomon commented, echoing Sora's thoughts "I doesn't really seem to belong with the rest."  
  
"I wonder what this says..." Sora continued, glancing at the alien inscriptions that graced the band as well as the torches.  
  
"You got me," Biyomon answered "That's Digi-script. Nobody uses that anymore. I don't think anyone could read it now if they wanted to."  
  
Meanwhile, Izzy and Tentomon were investigating another set of strange inscriptions that lined the walls of the temple.  
  
"I must say, Izzy" Tentomon said to his companion "I'm more than a little overwhelmed to be in the company of someone who actually knows how to read any of this."  
  
"Speaking of which," Izzy inquired, having heard Sora and Biyomon's conversation "Don't digimon have a written language? One that you actually use, I mean."  
  
"Well, yes, there is digicode, but it's not anything like all this." Tentomon explained.  
  
"Well then, who put it here?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Your guess is as good as mine." Tentomon shrugged "Actually, you'd probably make a better guess than me. What does it say?"  
  
"Well, that's the strange thing: it doesn't really seem to be any form of coherent message." Izzy said as he began to point out certain passages "This sentence would seem to be out of the manual for some manner of electrical appliance, but it's followed by a line from Hamlet. This next one, one the other hand, appears to be a description of a car that's for sale, and it's followed by the instructions off of a bottle of shampoo."  
  
"Drat." Tentomon sighed, not quite understanding all of what Izzy was referring too, but having enough of an idea to know that this wasn't getting them anywhere "I was hopping that the messages would shed light on their authors."  
  
"As was I." Izzy agreed "But the more I read, the more confused I become. Look here, the inscription actually changes languages here, and does so again here; and it still is a mush of gibberish."  
  
"While I appreciate the thought, I was aware of where the languages changed, Izzy." Tentomon pointed out, with little reason behind it other than the need to impress Izzy. And impressed Izzy was:  
  
"What? I thought you said you couldn't read it!"  
  
"Well, I can't, but Agumon and Gabumon can; a little. Somewhere, they found this book that explained how to understand a small portion of all this, though they can only read that kind." Tentomon explained, pointing to a single stretch of writing.  
  
"Hmmm...that would be English." Izzy said, more to himself than to Tentomon.  
  
"I figured that sense that seeing how this...`English' was it? Well, since it's different than digicode, I figured that everything that they couldn't read must be of different languages as well. Of course, the fact that most of it looked quite different added quite a bit of weight to my argument."  
  
"Well, that argument was quite correct." Izzy congratulated.  
  
"I must admit, however, I've never been able to understand why so many different writing styles are needed. Digicode is the only one that enough digimon are fluent in to be useful."  
  
"Well, all these languages are used in our world," Izzy explained "but each in different areas. For example, English is used most often in America and most of Europe. Japanese, however," he added, pointing to a second stretch of writing "is what's spoken in the nation I come from."  
  
"Oh! So they're more that just writing styles?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"Yes, that's right." Izzy confirmed "Language also pertains to verbal communication. Each language sounds different."  
  
"I see." Tentomon mussed "Could you show me what Japanese sounds like?"  
  
Izzy almost responded to Tentomon's request without giving it a second thought, but just before he spoke, his entire mind caught on it like a nail sticking out of the floor. He wasn't sure at the moment why he didn't notice it at once, but the request was absolutely absurd. He had just been speaking in...wait...  
  
"Excuse me, Matt?" Izzy called across the sprawling room.  
  
"Over here, Izzy;" Matt called back, walking over to where he could see him  
  
"what's the matter?"  
  
"I was just wondering, but what language dose Gabumon speak? Too you, I mean."  
  
"English, why?" Matt answered, somewhat confused by the request.  
  
Izzy's mind began to run at a ferocious speed that even he could barely keep up with as he asked "What language am I speaking?"  
  
Matt had already understood what an odd question that was when he answered "English again.", but it want until just after that he noticed that his answer was just as odd.  
  
"And I presume that you are speaking English at the moment as well." Izzy asked, already certain that he knew the answer.  
  
"Yes?" Matt more asked than answered.  
  
"Well, I haven't heard anything other than Japanese since we arived." Izzy explained.  
  
"HUH?" Tentomon stuttered, suddenly lost "None of you seem to sound like anything I've never heard before!"  
  
"Well, what dose this mean?" Gabumon asked.  
  
"I have no idea." Izzy confessed "I might suggest that our minds have somehow been affected in a manner that would alter our speech centers, but I couldn't back that up."  
  
"Good," Matt said "because I don't think I like the thought of something prodding around in my brain, if that's what you're suggesting."  
  
"I'm not sure what I'm suggesting," Izzy mussed, turning back to the wall "but I aim to find out..."  
  
As Izzy was busily postulating, Tai was wandering around his lavish surroundings like a hobo in a university library: not oblivious to the apparent significance of the area, but not very impressed once the initial grandeur wore off.  
  
"So..." Tai called to Pumkinmon as he wandered about "Uh...just what's this place for anyway?"  
  
"Uh, whattaya mean?" Pumkinmon asked.  
  
"You know, somebody built this place for a reason." Tai elaborated "Whaddja say it was? A temple?"  
  
"Uh, yeah." Gatsumon answered "Why?"  
  
"Well, I mean, what's it a temple for?"  
  
"`Cause that's what they built it for!" Pumkinmon answered, wondering what that dumb question even needed to be asked for.  
  
"NO, idiot!" Tai laughed "I mean do you have some god or something like that that you make sacrifices of something around here?"  
  
"Uh, no. I don't think so." Gatsumon said, scratching his head.  
  
"Well, what's it for then?" Tai pressed.  
  
"Um...hell, I dunno." Pumkinmon confessed.  
  
"I just figured it was here just to be here." Gatsumon added.  
  
"Doesn't anybody know what anything's for around here?" Tai half shouted, more amused than he was annoyed.  
  
"HEY! What's with all the racket?" Palmon inquired.  
  
"Tuns out these lame brains here don't actually know anything about this place!" Tai explained.  
  
"OH, NO NO NO!" Pumkinmon insisted "We know TONS about it!"  
  
"Yeah! Just nothing very useful!" Gatsumon added, thinking he was being helpful.  
  
"Well, what would the non-useful information be?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Um...OH! Check this out!" Pumkinmon said, pointing at a splotch on the ceiling  
  
"You see that spot there? Well, get this, it's not supposed to be there!"  
  
"Oh, gee, in that case..." Matt sighed sarcastically, getting the distinct impression that they'd been misled.  
  
"Any idiot could tell you something like that!" Mimi shouted, getting a similar impression.  
  
"YESH!" Gatsumon shouted, reeling back "You don't need to bite our heads off!"  
  
"Well, maybe it'd help you if you knew just what exactly when were looking for." Sora said, still holding out a glimmer of hope "We've been looking for a guy named Leomon, and we'd heard that he hung around here a lot. Do you have any idea why?"  
  
"LEOMON?" Pumkinmon asked, suddenly amused "Who knows why Leomon does anything?"  
  
"Oh, just great." Matt grunted, walking off.  
  
"Well, I mean since we don't know much about the temple, and we don't know much about Leomon, I guess it makes sense that he'd stick around here." Gatsumon thought to himself.  
  
"Well, just because you don't know, that doesn't mean that we can't find out." Izzy offered "Do know anyplace we could look that might shed some light on the origins this temple?"  
  
"Well..." Pumkinmon thought "There's this room in the back that's got a whole bunch of scrolls and stuff."  
  
"That's perfect!" Izzy shouted, all ready on his way.  
  
"Information, please Izzy." Tentomon requested, trying to catch up to his dashing companion.  
  
"Well, temples in my world all have some sort of purpose," Izzy explained, between pants "and they all have some kind of documents or scripture to explain or justify it. If this temple has anything even remotely like that, it should serve to answer a great number of questions!"  
  
Well, it was a nice idea while it lasted.  
  
"No..." Izzy moaned, crestfallen, as he surveyed the charred remains of what they presumed had once been the scrolls.  
  
"What happened?" T.K. muttered, looking around at the piles of ash.  
  
"Maybe somebody had an accident while they were cooking?" Patamon suggested.  
  
"I don't think so," Tentomon said, flying along the shelves lining the small (compared to the main chamber) storage room. While the scrolls were totally demolished, the shelves were relatively untouched "this looks like it was done deliberately."  
  
"But why would anybody want to burn all this old stuff?" Sora asked, not to anyone in particular.  
  
"Maybe they weren't very popular?" Mimi suggested.  
  
"Do you know what the scrolls were about?" Izzy asked Pumkinmon and Gatsumon.  
  
"Sorry, man." Gatsumon confessed.  
  
"We tried to get into them a few times," Pumkinmon explained "but most of them were in digi-script."  
  
"Most?" Izzy asked "So they all weren't?"  
  
"No." Gatsumon answered "But even the ones that we could read...Well...They didn't make any sense."  
  
"Well, what did they say that you couldn't figure out?" Agumon asked.  
  
"I really don't know, and that's the problem" Pumkinmon picked up "Most of it was real big words that I couldn't understand."  
  
"Do you have any idea who would have wanted to burn them?" Gabumon asked.  
  
"Nope." Gatsumon said "I don't know who would have cared about them one way or the other."  
  
"Yeah, you guys are the only ones we've seen who ever even cared about the temple." Pumkinmon added.  
  
"Hey!" Sora called from the other side of the room "What's behind this?"  
  
Taking a quick trip around the shelves and ashes, the group found her standing in front of a closed door "It looks like it's locked." she explained.  
  
"Could there be more scrolls back there?" Agumon asked.  
  
"Whoa..." Pumkinmon and Gatsumon laughed nervously "Uh, no. There aren't"  
  
"Well then, what is back there?" Palmon asked.  
  
"Trust me," Pumkinmon answered "you do not want to go back there!"  
  
"Dude, not a good idea." Gatsumon. added, urgently "No way!"  
  
"Well, that figures." Joe sighed "We risk our live to get here, and it turns out that this place is dangerous too."  
  
"What exactly is back there?" Matt asked, warily.  
  
"Well, it's this kind of factory thing." Pumkinmon explained.  
  
"And just what's so bad about that?" Sora asked.  
  
"Well, nobody's ever gone in and come back out again, for one." Gatsumon answered.  
  
"OK, I can see the problem there." Tai said.  
  
"What's inside?" Gomamon asked.  
  
"Well, if we knew that, we'd have to have been in there." Pumkinmon answered "And that would mean that we'd be dead. And do we look dead to you?"  
  
"Well, he doesn't," Mimi said, pointing to Gatsumon "but I dunno about you."  
  
"Uh, yeah. Whatever." Pumkinmon said as he scratched his jack o'lantern head, missing the point completely.  
  
"Well, anything with the issues to get legends like that going sound like a likely suspect for all this." Tai said, heading for the door.  
  
"Uh, I guess somebody wasn't paying much attention to those `legends', were they?" Matt said, stopping Tai "Just where do you think you're going?"  
  
"Well, mother, I was going to check out just what was back there." Tai mocked, quite annoyed.  
  
"You're right." Gomamon said "He wasn't paying attention."  
  
"You can't just go tramping straight into someplace dangerous!" Matt said "Do you have any idea what you might run into?"  
  
"Of course not!" Tai answered angrily "And I never will until somebody goes in to find out!"  
  
"Dude! You must have a death wish or something!" Gatsumon shouted "there isn't anything worth finding out there!"  
  
"Just how do you know if you've never been in there?" Tai challenged.  
  
"Hey, may not have been in there;" Pumkinmon defended "but we've been back there."  
  
"OK, you lost me." Matt said.  
  
"Well, if it'll get you to shut up about all this, here." Gatsumon said, giving the latch a good, hard whack. In a moment, the door slowly glided open, revealing a short passage way ending in another door.  
  
"Come on. We'll show you." Pumkinmon said, going in.  
  
Outside the second door, an nightmarishly huge crater yawned out like nothing any of them had ever seen. It slowly dawned upon the stunned travelers that the sudden wall of earth they had climbed earlier was the rim of the abyss. As far as any of them could see before the rim succumbed to distance, it seemed that the entire crater was fenced off by the wall that had stretched off from either side of the temple. All of this paled in comparison to what was actually inside the monstrous crater. Sprawled out so that no hint of ground could be seen, and stretching at least a hundred stories up by the center, was the largest factory any of them had ever seen.  
  
"Well, whoever built this temple wasn't naturalist; that much is for sure." Sora mused.  
  
"I wonder what they make in there." Patamon wondered.  
  
"If it's toys, I hope they have a gift shop!" T.K. added.  
  
"Now, that is quite an impressive feat of engineering!" Tentomon commented.  
  
"So nobody here knows what's in there?" Matt asked.  
  
"No, but we have plenty of ideas and urban legends," Gatsumon answered "and that's enough for me!"  
  
"Well, someone is definitely in there." Izzy said, observing quite a lot of mechanical activity throughout what could be seen of the inside "Nobody ever trusts automation enough to leave it completely unmonitored."  
  
"Do you know what they make in there?" Agumon asked.  
  
"Nope, never seen anything come out of that place." Gatsumon answered.  
  
"Maybe you simply weren't watching the right place?" Gabumon inquired.  
  
"Naw, there's only one way out of there;" Pumkinmon corrected "it's this big ol' gate on the other side."  
  
"Well, they must have made the gate for somebody to use." Gabumon pointed out.  
  
"HEY! WAIT A MINUTE!" Izzy shouted "LOOK AT THAT!"  
  
"Yeah, we know it's big." Tai said, rubbing the ear that Izzy had shouted in "Didn't you notice?"  
  
"Yes, but I didn't notice this!" Izzy said, too caught up in what he was thinking to be annoyed "Look at that big block of metal in the center!" They did and, sure enough, there was something on it "What dose that emblem look like?"  
  
"Uh, can you give us a hint?" Mimi asked when no one else answered.  
  
"Ugh..." Izzy sighed before fishing his digivice out of his pocket "THIS! That's a digivice up there!"  
  
"WHAT?" everyone shouted in unison.  
  
"Well, that's actually quite encouraging!" Gabumon said.  
  
"Do you think that this is where they made the digivices?" Palmon asked.  
  
"Well, I can't think of any other reason to have a picture of one up there." Izzy answered.  
  
"OK, now I'm starting to like the sound of snooping around this place." Matt said.  
  
"Well, it's about damn time!" Tai shouted, already making his way down the metal stairs that stretched into the central complex.  
  
"I didn't say anything about running in blind like a maniac!" Matt shouted, running after him "Come back here!"  
  
"Who died and made you leader?" Tai challenged, coming to a halt.  
  
"Who gave you permission to be an idiot?" Matt challenged back.  
  
"Who has time to care?" Gomamon asked, whisking past both of them "COME ON!"  
  
"HEY, wait a minute!" Joe pleaded, trying to catch up "Boy, for a little guy with flippers for feet, you sure are fast!"  
  
"WHOAWHOAWHOA!!!" Pumkinmon shouted "You don't actually mean that you're going in there?"  
  
"I know it may sound foolish," Izzy called back, making his way down "but if this factory is, in fact run by whoever made these digivices, them they must be the ones who brought us to the Digiworld in the first place! If that is the case, we may have found a way to get back to our world! We can't allow this chance to pass us by!"  
  
"Well, OK." Gatsumon shouted "When you put it that way, I have no idea what you're talking about! That usually means that it's a good idea!"  
  
"Sheah, right." Pumkinmon laughed "I hope you've made your will and stuff!"  
  
"Come on!" Gatsumon insisted "They survived the trip through the dessert; well, sort of. But sill, they might make it."  
  
"Ten bucks says they're gonna die!" Pumkinmon challenged.  
  
"If I had ten bucks to bet, I'd do it!" Gatsumon answered (sort of).  
  
Just then, they heard one of the intrepid travelers shout "OW!"  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"My shoelace is stuck in the steps! Wait a second!"  
  
"...you're right." Gatsumon said after a moment "They're gonna die."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	7. Duck and Run

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book One  
  
Chapter seven  
  
Run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
Well, baby, better take my advice  
  
a black cat crossed your path twice  
  
the moon came out next to the sun  
  
you opened your umbrella in a room  
  
you'd better run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
Well, you ain't the luckiest girl I know  
  
and you won't get luckier the way you're going  
  
your horseshoe's rusty and your mirror's cracked  
  
you walk under ladders and you walk right back  
  
You'd better run, run, run  
  
(pack your bags and go)  
  
run, run, run  
  
(you'd better believe)  
  
run, run, run  
  
(that you gotta go)  
  
run, run, run  
  
Now when you dropped that little pin  
  
you never thought what a mess it would get you in  
  
little pin, little pin, bring me luck  
  
because I stopped to pick you up  
  
You'd better run, run, run  
  
(get away)  
  
run, run, run  
  
(pack your bags and go)  
  
run, run, run  
  
(now, you'd better go)  
  
run, run, run  
  
Now, little girl, I'm helping you  
  
I want you to believe what I say is true  
  
whenever you run, I'll be running too  
  
wherever you run, I'll be following you!  
  
You'd better run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run  
  
run, run, run...  
  
"Run Run Run" (no duh)  
  
By Pete Townshend  
  
from the album "A Quick One" by The Who  
  
Chapter seven  
  
Duck And Run  
  
The never ending hum of the machinery could be heard long before they were even inside. There wasn't any one single sound that could be pulled up from the cloudy bog of the racket and be recognized on it's own; they all blended into a single, mournful hum. As the un-earthly sound echoed from the tall, narrow gap that served as an entrance to the mountain-like factory, most of the enthusiasm of investigating the mysterious structure evaporated from the dwarfed explorers.  
  
"You know what?" Joe said "Why don't Gomamon and me stand guard out here?"  
  
"Nice try." Matt said "Now come on. If we needed to be guarded from anything, it'd be on the inside." Besides Matt added silently if we were posting guards out here, I'd call first dibs.  
  
"OK," Sora asked "What exactly are we looking for once we're actually inside?"  
  
"Well," Izzy answered "to be honest, I have no idea."  
  
"Hopefully, it'll be clearly marked." Matt joked, deadpan.  
  
"Oh, funny." Mimi grouched "Very funny."  
  
As it turned out, the group was much farther from actually entering the compound it's self than they'd assumed. Once they were through the massive front gate, the fourteen found themselves in what appeared to be a large storage area. Far below the narrow walkway was a gapping trench that stretched roughly a hundred feet across and wrapped completely around what seemed to be the actual facility. Looking down the dizzying depths of the trench, a maze of unmarked tanks and canisters was sparsely peppered along the floor. While there was a considerable number of them, it seemed obvious that the trench had been designed with a far greater load in mind.  
  
"I wonder what they keep in there?" Agumon wondered as they slowly made their way across.  
  
"What ever it is," Izzy commented, taking the great size of the area into account "it would appear that much more of it was intended."  
  
"You wanna know what this place needs?" Mimi asked.  
  
"If we say know, will you be telling us anyway?" Matt asked back.  
  
"One of those moving sidewalks." Mimi said, ignoring Matt "Whoever designed this place should die."  
  
Any hate of the designers was replaced, momentarily at least, by total admiration upon entering the actual factory it's self. The first and most obvious thing that came to mind was that the interior resembled a man-made mountain range. Jutting up throughout the domed interior were innumerable smaller structures, most of which shared a common, rough pyramid like appearance. It was almost impossible to tell where one structure ended an another began, thanks to a web of pipe and walkways connecting them all. In the center, a huge, multicolored column, connected to everything else by cables, sprouted out of the mess and continued until it hit the distant ceiling.  
  
"Well, we're here." Tai remarked "Now what?"  
  
"I have no idea..." Sora said, in awe of the massiveness of the facility "They don't believe in small around here, do they?"  
  
"Well, this whole thing was your idea, Izzy." Matt said "Got any bright ideas?"  
  
"I'm working on that..." Izzy answered "I suppose that the structure in the center would seem the logical place to start looking."  
  
"Uh, guys?" Joe offered nervously "Maybe first we should take a look around the rim here where it's nice and close to the exit."  
  
"Come on Joe!" Sora chimed, tugging him along by the arm.  
  
********************  
  
"WARNING INTRUDER ALERT ACTIVATE SECURITY PROCEDURES"  
  
With a quiet hum, the sentry switched to life. It was quickly provided with a rudimentary assessment of the situation.  
  
"INTRUDERS IDENTIFACATION: ONE AGUMON ONE BIYOMON ONE GABUMON ONE GOMAMON ONE PALMON ONE PATAMON ONE TENTOMON SEVEN TOTAL STAGES: BASIC THREAT: MINIMAL UNIDENTIFIED: SEVEN TOTAL STAGES: UNDETERMINED THREAT: UNDETERMINED"  
  
The assessment was far from satisfactory. That as many as seven intruders could be totally unidentifiable was almost impossible. But still, a full diagnostic had been performed only 17.5 days ago. The possibility that the security monitoring system could have become faulty in such a short time was almost non-existent. Instead, the sentry pulled up a visual of the intruders.  
  
"OPTICAL SECURITY FILE 17468 GRID 567"  
  
The sentry took a moment to apologize to the monitoring system, he couldn't identify the seven either. Their bodily construction was quite unlike anything on record, although the basic shape was slightly reminiscent of a number of species (including his own). Their muscular structure was far from threatening, and the scans showed absolutely no sign of any attributes whatsoever. The only thing that was in anyway remarkable about the seven was the neural scan, which indicated an unusually level of adaptability. Still, without any defenses of their own, they proved even less of a threat than the digimon that accompanied them.  
  
Disposing of them would not be difficult.  
  
********************  
  
"WHOEVER DESSIGNED THESE WALKWAYS MUST HAVE BEEN DRUNK WHEN THEY DID IT!" Mimi whined as the long, winding trip to the center of the factory continued "THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD REASON FOR THE WAY DOWN TO TAKE THIS LONG!"  
  
"Stop flapping you jaw, Mimi." Tai groaned "We're almost there."  
  
"Well, we should have been almost there a long time ago!" Mimi countered.  
  
"I don't know why I'm taking so long to ask these things," Sora piped up "but just what do we think this thing is?"  
  
"That's what we're on our way down for!" Tentomon answered "To find out!"  
  
"Do we have any expectations?" Gabumon asked.  
  
"I make it a practice to never have expectations." Izzy explained.  
  
"That's the smartest thing I've heard today." Matt commented, impressed.  
  
It certainly was a good thing none of them had expectations, as what turned up most likely wouldn't have lived up to them. The outside of the column was totally undecorated aside from a ring of torches on the wall that bore the same inscriptions as the ones previously seen in the temple. The only other change in the mostly unchanging surface was a small door. While the door it's self was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the column, a single handle protruded quite obviously from the center.  
  
"So are we going in or what?" Agumon asked when no one else did.  
  
"Are you sure it's safe?" Palmon asked.  
  
"I know how to find out!" Tai said grabbing the handle and giving it a good tug. The door slid out several inches and stopped for a moment. Tai assumed that this meant it was stuck and went on to give it several more tugs. When he finally quit tugging (but had yet to let go) The door automatically slid upwards, taking Tai with it until he caught on and let go (insuring a painful plop onto the floor).  
  
"Bravo." Matt mocked as he passed his somewhat out of it comrade.  
  
"OK, that was weird." Tai moaned, rubbing his sore head.  
  
Whether or not the interior was worth the trip inside depended on who you asked. Technically speaking, there was absolutely nothing in there, simply an empty shaft not too terribly larger than a big closet capped off by an unfathomably long distance to the top. Still, the shaft was hardly barren: the walls were covered in digi-script. Correction: they weren't completely covered, roughly nine feet up, the wall became as blank as they were on the outside.  
  
"Well, this was certainly a big, fat waste of time!" Mimi complained (surprise!).  
  
"Are you kidding?" Izzy countered "This writing is obviously of significance!"  
  
"Yeah, this writing that NONE OF US CAN READ!" Gomamon reminded.  
  
"HEY! Look at this!" T.K. interrupted from the side where he'd found something unusual "Isn't this where you plug a phone in?" Sure enough, T.K. had discovered not only a phone jack, but an electrical socket.  
  
"YES!" Izzy shouted, rushing over. Without a blink, he'd plugged his lap top in and was watching is boot up contentedly.  
  
"I thought that thing wasn't working." Agumon said, confused.  
  
"He said it was out of batteries." Gabumon corrected.  
  
"ALRIGHT!" Izzy exclaimed again "It's working!"  
  
"And that's good, why?" Joe asked, anxious to get moving again.  
  
"I have several decryption programs that just might be able to decode all this!" Izzy explained.  
  
"Why do we care what all this stuff says?" Mimi asked "I thought we were trying to find who ran this two bit dump."  
  
"Well, it would seem likely that the builders of this facility would have considered this to be of some importance if they placed it here in the middle," Tentomon offered "so it would also seem likely that if we knew what this says, we'd have a better chance of locating them."  
  
"Very good, Tentomon!" Izzy commented, impressed.  
  
"So, just how long is this decoding junk going to take?" Tai asked, becoming impatient with being crammed in the chamber with every one else.  
  
"It's impossible to tell." Izzy mumbled dismissively, all ready engrossed in his work "Not any sooner than a few hours, at least. And that's extremely optimistic."  
  
"AN FEW HOURS?" Palmon whined.  
  
"AT THE LEAST?" Mimi added.  
  
"Hey, these things take time." Izzy explained, too busy to be offended by their disrespect.  
  
"I hate to rain on your parade, Izzy," Sora cut in "but is it really safe for us to just hang around here? We don't know what all's running around in here, and it's a long way back out."  
  
"I know a good way to find out what's `running around'." Tai said, making his way to the door.  
  
"Wait a minute! What about them?" Agumon objected, pointing at Izzy and Tentomon.  
  
"Hey, if the professor wants to hang around this hole, that's fine with me!" Tai shot back.  
  
"Hold on." Matt said, gabbing Tai's shoulder "I don't like the idea of leaving any one by himself in here."  
  
"No one will be by himself!" Tentomon objected "We'll both be here together!"  
  
"All right, allow be to correct myself:" Matt said, annoyed "`I don't like the idea of leaving anyBODY here by THEMSELVES.'"  
  
"We'll be quite all right." Izzy insisted "I have great faith in Tentomon's ability to protect me."  
  
"REALLY?!?!?!? YOU DO?!?!?!?" Tentomon shouted, quite honored by the complement.  
  
"No offense, Tentomon, but I still don't like it." Matt insisted.  
  
"Well, no one said we had to check out the entire factory at once." Sora pointed out "We can just pick out one section near here to check out so we won't be that far away!"  
  
"Excellent suggestion, Sora!" Biyomon complemented.  
  
"And it's not like it'll be hard to find this place again." Gomamon added.  
  
"Sounds good to me!" Gabumon agreed, nudging Matt to give him the hint that the solution was right in front of him. Matt, however, didn't see things that way.  
  
"I don't know;" he said "it seems very easy to get lost in here, and if we're going to get lost, we should do it with everyone in one place."  
  
"Well, I guess I can see the logic in that." Joe commented.  
  
"Logic, shmogic." Tai smirked, hopping past Matt "Let's go."  
  
"That's fine with me!" Mimi agreed, following him.  
  
"Me too!" Palmon added, jogging along.  
  
"Me three!" Gomamon shouted, joining the pack.  
  
"Wha-WAIT FOR ME!" Joe shouted, running to catch up. Before he'd gone, however, he dumped his bag by Izzy and called back "If we're just going to go a little ways, will you watch it for me? Thanks!" with that, he was gone without waiting for an answer.  
  
"Well, it looks like we're going." Sora sighed to Matt as she jogged off to join the others.  
  
"I don't believe this..." Matt grumbled to himself, shaking his head, as he slowly followed.  
  
Now left in the shaft, Izzy silently went about his work  
  
"All righty then!" Tentomon said "What are we going to do?"  
  
"Decipher this digi-script." Izzy stated as he began to rummage through his backpack.  
  
"Well, I figured that." Tentomon replied "I meant how?"  
  
"First of all," Izzy began "I intend to enter all of the digi-script into the computer. Then, I'll run it through all of my decryption programs and hope for the best."  
  
"Uh, OK." Tentomon answered. It was the last thing he said for several minutes. After a while (not that long really), he'd had enough.  
  
"Any luck?" he asked.  
  
"I haven't even begun." Izzy explained, fiddling with a digital camera.  
  
"Well, what have you been doing all this time?" Tentomon asked, perturbed.  
  
"This is the device I intend to use to enter the digi-script into the computer, I need to make sure I don't miss any detail."  
  
"OK, sure." Tentomon said , this time resolving to keep his mouth shut. So much for that.  
  
"Any progress?" he asked, not even a minute later.  
  
"No." Izzy replied curtly without turning around.  
  
"How about now?" Tentomon asked impatiently after a few seconds.  
  
"Tentomon." Izzy said, still staring into the camera "It is very difficult for me to work with your continued interruptions. If you want this to be done quickly, I ask you to refrain from conversation."  
  
Giving out an exasperated sigh, Tentomon gave up and plopped down on the other side of the room, settling in for a long stay "Something tells me this is going to be a very long couple of hours..."  
  
********************  
  
The sentry mover slowly through the service shafts of the facility. The tracking systems showed that the intruders had penetrated the power core, fortunately, they hadn't caused any damage, all but two of them had left, and toe two remaining seemed to pose no threat. They would be dealt with later. For the moment, the larger group posed 145.5% more of a threat. They would be eliminated first.  
  
********************  
  
"...so them Madeline's eyes get, like, huge and she shouts `Wait...Did you say your PARENTS bedroom?'. The Rumiko realized what's going on and runs, and I mean RUNS out to catch her dad before he gets in, and she catches him just as he's at the door and starts stalling. I don't even remember what it was she said, because as soon as we found out what was going on, we were just about breaking the door in trying to get Mitsuboshi and Tyrone out of there before Rumiko's dad got in..."  
  
"Don't you have any stories that don't sound like they came from a bad sitcom?" Matt interrupted.  
  
"Let her finish!" Tai laughed, trying to regain his breath "This is great!"  
  
"It's ridiculous, that's what it is." Matt insisted.  
  
"Aw, screw him." Tai shot back "So go on, Mimi. What happened?"  
  
"Well," Mimi picked up "They got back out of the window just before her dad  
  
caught on and took a look inside. And, see, Tyrone had left one of his sneakers, just one, in the room and, of course, he wanted to know who's it was. Then Madeline panicked and said it was her's. And, of course, that was so stupid `cause it was way bigger than her size. She just said it was a fashion and, of course, he almost bought that, but then he asked why there was only one. Then she tried to look like she hadn't even noticed that there was only one and said she'd forgotten the other one! I don't know why, but then he must have figured he had better things to do and left."  
  
"Let me get this straight." Matt said, incredulously "This guy's just come back unexpectedly, he finds you girls in his house obviously hiding something, and he finds somebody else's clothes-"  
  
"ONE SHOE." Mimi corrected.  
  
"Whatever." Matt sighed "And he just leaves?"  
  
"He'd had a bad day." Mimi explained "He didn't want to figure it out."  
  
"Besides," Tai added "It's not like it was his daughter in there."  
  
"Yeah," Mimi concurred "if it even looked like it had been, he would have called Interpol to help him figure it out!"  
  
"Figure out what?" T.K. asked innocently.  
  
"Nothing you need to know about." Matt answered quickly.  
  
"Yeah, this is strictly older kid stuff." Tai added.  
  
"Whadda ya mean, Tai?" T.K. continued "What was going on in there?"  
  
"Your asking the wrong question to the wrong guy." Matt answered, mockingly  
  
"I'll bet money he couldn't tell you. Not from personal experience, at least."  
  
"You'd be surprised." Tai shot back angrily.  
  
"I know I'd be" Mimi, who by this point had migrated up to Tai's side, purred sensuously as she wrapped her arm around Tai's neck "I bet he knows exactly what I'm talking about."  
  
You could have draped a shaggy wig on a solid red light bulb, and it wouldn't have come close to capturing how much Tai blushed. He tried to respond, but unintelligent syllables just tumbled out of his mouth.  
  
"You'll have to excuse Tai." Sora giggled, coming to her friend's rescue (and putting him back in his place at the same time) "He doesn't handle girls coming on to him very well."  
  
"Really?" Matt asked, suddenly quite interested.  
  
"Oh, yeah!" Sora laughed "There was this one really bad time at soccer camp...but I really don't need to be talking about something like that."  
  
"THANK YOU!" Tai sighed, remembering that particular incident quite vividly.  
  
"I still don't know what you're talking about." T.K. said, discouraged.  
  
"Uh... Matt?" Joe piped up from the back, worried as usual.  
  
"What?" Matt asked, annoyed.  
  
"Didn't we pass that big pipe all ready?"  
  
Matt was right there in a flash "I...I'm not sure." he said "We've passed a lot of pipes."  
  
"OH NO..." Joe said starting up yet another panic attack "WE'RE LOST!!!"  
  
"WE MOST CERTAINLY ARE NOT LOST!!!" Matt shot back "Just because this pipe looks familiar, that doesn't mean we're going in circles!"  
  
"Yeah," Sora agreed "If we had, we would have run into Izzy and Tentomon again!"  
  
"Not necessarily." Gabumon pointed out "We might have wound up in a circle that's two small to get back there."  
  
"Hey, who's side are you on?" Matt asked.  
  
"Well, are we lost or not?" Agumon interrupted "We still haven't figured that out yet."  
  
"We're NOT." Matt insisted.  
  
"Well, let's find out!" Tai suggested "We'll just go backwards and see if we get back!"  
  
"Are you crazy?" Matt asked, all ready convinced he was "This path may have looked obvious in this direction, but it'll look completely different going back! If we start messing around, then we really will be lost!"  
  
"Awww, come on, you worry wart!" Gomamon laughed "We can figure it out!"  
  
"Are you sure?" T.K. asked, taking his brother's side.  
  
"Sure!" Tai assured him "How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?"  
  
Matt began to protest, but he saw that every one's mind all ready seemed made up and figured it would be of no use. Thus, everybody made their way back down the winding path back to the center of the factory.  
  
********************  
  
After some time of mind numbing (to Tentomon at least) shooting of the digi- script, Izzy had finally begun to attempt deciphering. Unfortunately, that proved more difficult that either of them had planed.  
  
"Any luck yet?" Tentomon asked (once again).  
  
"No." Izzy sighed, frustrated (this time, at his lack of progress instead of at Tentomon) "I just don't have enough information to translate."  
  
"Well, what exactly do you need?" Tentomon asked, trying to make himself useful.  
  
"A Digi-script to Japanese Dictionary would be nice." Izzy suggested sarcastically.  
  
"Sorry, can't help you there." Tentomon sighed before having a sudden brain storm "HEY! Would it help if you had some additional examples to compare this to?"  
  
"YES!!!" Izzy exclaimed "That would be perfect!"  
  
"OK, let's see..." Tentomon thought to himself "Where's some more digi- script we could get to quickly?"  
  
"Hmmm...That might prove to be a problem..." Izzy mussed "There's all that writing up at the temple, but we don't need to be leaving without letting the others know where we are."  
  
"There's some on your digivice," Tentomon pointed out "let's try that!"  
  
At that, Izzy quickly fished out the small device and began to examine it. Sure enough, the ring around it's central screen did indeed bare a small amount of digi-script, unfortunately, only two of the symbols matched any of the ones on the walls. Then Izzy noticed something that had escaped his attention before, on the right side of the digivice a single, tiny symbol of digi-script had been lightly engraved in the casing. Due to it's small size, Izzy couldn't tell if that particular symbol was in the huge mess of characters on the walls or not, so he began to rub on it and see if he could clean it up more.  
  
What he did was dislodge the whole side of the casing.  
  
At first, Izzy feared he had broken it, but then he realized that the side seemed to have been designed to break away. Izzy figured that he hadn't discovered this because of how gingerly he'd been handling it until now. Not having any better idea, he decided to remove the casing completely. Underneath, Izzy found, to his complete amazement, that the digivice seemed to have been designed to connect with a laptop like his own.  
  
"What the devil?" Izzy muttered to himself as he examined his unexpected discovery.  
  
"What?" Tentomon asked, not having paid much attention.  
  
"I'm not sure, let's find out." Izzy said half consciously as he plugged the digivice into his laptop "I hope that digivices are compatible with Macintosh..."  
  
********************  
  
"`How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?' `How hard can it be to walk back the way we've just been?' AAAUGH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE WE LET YOU TALK US INTO THIS!!!"  
  
"Shut up, Mimi!" Tai groaned "Nobody said you had to come too!"  
  
"Well it was STILL your idea!" Mimi shot back.  
  
"It doesn't matter who's idea it was." Sora butted in "All that matters right now is getting to where we know where we are!"  
  
"How can we when we don't know a thing about this place?" Joe moaned.  
  
"I think the idea is to wander around clueless and hope on some dumb luck." Gomamon joked bitterly.  
  
"That sounds like a Tai kind of plan." Matt agreed.  
  
"Well, it still sounds better than a Matt kind of plan:" Tai snarled "`let's all sit on out lazy butts until Hell freezes over' come on!"  
  
"Now look Tai;" Matt started "just because...wait a minute..."  
  
"What's the matter?" Tai mocked "Forget it already?"  
  
"Did you hear that?" Matt asked, not bothering to entertain the jab.  
  
"Hey, we're in a factory." Mimi pointed out "there're lots of things to hear!"  
  
"No no no..." Matt insisted "This was something different. Nearby too."  
  
"Hey, waittaminute..." Gabumon echoed "I do hear something!"  
  
Matt started to point out that he wasn't actually hearing anything any more, it had just been at that one moment, but he figured, given the skeptical attitude of his companions already, that it probably wasn't a good idea.  
  
"HEY, YEAH! So do I!" Agumon added "It almost sounds like something...I dunno...crawling around or something."  
  
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" Joe shrieked "It's gotta be that thing Pumkinmon and Gatsumon warned us about!"  
  
"They didn't warn us about a 'thing'!" Sora corrected, trying to avoid thinking about the warnings.  
  
"But they did say no one comes out of here alive!" Mimi whimpered, teetering on the edge of falling into the panicky pit that Joe lived in perpetually (try saying that five times fast!).  
  
"This isn't the best thing to be dwelling upon right now." Biyomon urged "Let's just be on our way and-"  
  
Biyomon never got a chance to finish: straight in front of them, up through the metal grating that made the floor, burst a towering, mechanical nightmare. A least eight feet tall, the instantly terrifying robot was a cluttered mess of cables, gears, boxes, and plates; seemingly on the verge of collapsing upon it's self, yet with an indescribably lethal air.  
  
"I SURE HEARD THAT!!!" Tai shouted.  
  
"INTRUDERS LOCATED." the giant flatly bellowed in a rumbling, yet tinny voice "INITIATING TERMINATION PROTOCALLS."  
  
"T-T-TERMINATION?!?!?" T.K. stuttered unsteadily.  
  
"Come on!" Matt shouted, grabbing his sibling "We're getting out of here!"  
  
**********************  
  
Izzy's hopes that the Digivice would be compatible with Macs weren't quite realized, but he was too busy being confounded over what he found to care. Once he finished connecting the two, several files were automatically transferred into the laptop. Because they didn't seem to be designed for Macs (Izzy didn't even venture to guess what it was designed for), he had to go through a number of translation programs to get anything to work. Once that was out of the way, he mused for a moment over what he should open first. Finally, he decided to hope that they had been arranged in an intelligent order and went for the first on the top. While he knew it was a text file, the gibberish title (jugfNKvijfkhT^gkoilk) didn't bode well as to it's contents. sure enough, a rather underwelmed Izzy was met with an nonsensical jumble of computer code.  
  
"I don't believe this..." Izzy groaned  
  
"Please tell me that you're just two overwhelmed about discovering exactly what you wanted to see..." Tentomon begged, trying not to think that all that time had been for naught.  
  
"I wish I could," Izzy answered, scrolling through the mass of text and symbols "but I just don't know what to make of all this. It seems to be in programming language, but I don't see how this could ever make any kind of working program."  
  
"Well, precisely what is it that leave this unworkable?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"EVERYTHING!" Izzy explained "This couldn't form an operating program any more than that jumble of letters and the like in the title make a word!"  
  
"Maybe we just haven't read far enough?" Tentomon offered, trying to stay optimistic.  
  
"I hope that's it." Izzy sighed "There certainly is more than enough in this file to make that a possibility. This thing is huge."  
  
"UH OH." Tentomon stuttered, suddenly apprehensive "I hope this doesn't mean I have to be quiet again..."  
  
**********************  
  
With a sickening moan the metal frame of what had, up to that moment, been a huge storage tank fell in on it's self after being split straight through the center. The huge digimon, who the others had identified as Andromon, calmly strolled through the mess of metal like a any of the ones he pursued would walk through a door: without a second thought. Some ways ahead, the group of twelve humans and digimon ran frantically from the imposing figure without stopping to even think where they were going. If they hadn't been lost before, the certainly were now.  
  
"WHAT IS THAT CREEP'S PROBLEM?" Mimi screeched as she ran.  
  
"I guess he didn't feel like having any visitors today!" Palmon offered.  
  
"Well, I'm sure we'd be happy to leave and come back latter if we just knew how." Gabumon panted.  
  
"Speaking of which," Sora called "just where are we going?"  
  
"I'll worry about that when I get there!" Tai called back, not exactly in team spirit at the moment.  
  
"For once, we agree!" Matt shouted "We wouldn't know where we were going even if we had time to figure it out!"  
  
Before anyone had a chance to make another comment, the dimly lit walk way in front of them erupted in a spray of smoke and sparks. Nothing had had the chance to settle before Andromon steeped out and began to move towards his prey.  
  
"Wha- But- How did he get in front of us?" T.K. sputtered.  
  
"He must have gone around!" Matt grunted, Damn it! he thought We should have been paying more attention! "Quick! Let's get out of here!"  
  
"To where?" Sora asked, already on her way.  
  
"What makes you think I know?" Matt quipped as he passed her.  
  
"This is hopeless!" Joe whined "That guy knows every nook and cranny of this place! How are we supposed to get away from him?"  
  
"I'M WORKING ON IT!!!" Matt shouted, not wanting to be reminded of the seriousness of their predicament.  
  
"In other words, we're screwed." Tai answered bitterly.  
  
"We'll figure it out!" Gabumon assured the pessimistic crew "Just give it some time!"  
  
The words were barely out of the digimon's mouth when the side wall exploded in another spray of sparks, revealing a familiar, huge silhouette.  
  
"Like we've got time..." Gomamon shot back darkly as they began running again.  
  
It was hard to tell when it happened, but at some point the group wound up in what seemed to be the basement of the factory. The walkways, which hadn't been that large in the first place, became more like crawlways. It lighting virtually disappeared as well. So there they were: crawling, climbing, and, in other ways, writhing through a mess of pipes and manholes as fast as they possibly could (which wasn't fast at all). Of course, Andromon was always just behind them. Or in front or beside or whatever the case may be. There would be a flash, a quick sound, and there he was. He was never moving, he didn't seem to have even been touching the wall or floor he suddenly appeared behind. He was just there. Then he began to move.  
  
That's when the nightmare would really begin...  
  
There'd be another flash, this time emanating from Andromon's fist, and everything around him would vanish in a terrifying explosion. In an instant, every wall, floor panel, everything in the vicinity warped and snapped under the sudden stress; except for what was directly next to the blast. That was blown into razor sharp shreds of shrapnel that streaked in every conceivable direction. Usually, in the confusion of the attacks, the terrified prey could slip through the stress fractures caused by the attack and start running all over again.  
  
To some, this may seem an incredibly stupid manner of hunting, but Andromon knew exactly what he was doing. He could easily have annihilated the intruders the moment they entered his view, but that wasn't the only thing he had on his mind. His master had made his orders very clear:  
  
He was to test the intruders. Record their abilities and try to determine their origins. He would not attempt to terminate them until his reinforcements had arrived. Devimon was not about to take any chances with them.  
  
Andromon had not been informed who his reinforcements were, only that he was to wait for their arrival. It somewhat perplexed him; not his being forbiden to destroy them then, Devimon's reasoning was quite clear, given the two previous victories against single assailants he had been made aware of with his assignment. What vexed him was why reinforcements were needing to be sent, as the guardian of the dungeon was always present in the lower levels. Andromon's personal experience told him that the guardian's strength was, at the very least, equal to his; shouldn't he then be summoned as the reinforcements? More over, why had his orders expressly forbid him to enter the lower levels? Andromon only mussed over this for a moment. There was sure to be a reason behind Devimon's decision. There always was.  
  
The fleeing prey of Andromon knew nothing of all this, of course. All they knew was, for the moment, their world consisted of nothing more than running and hiding. Seemingly endless minutes of mindless running interrupted by terrifying moments of light, stinging debris, and a mad scramble to get to where they couldn't be seen again.  
  
"QUICK!!! OVER HERE!!!" Matt ordered to the others as they fell unceremoniously through a fissure in the floor and into the corridor below.  
  
"WHY? What's over there?" Tai asked.  
  
"Hell, I dunno, but it looks better than that way." Matt shrugged, already taking off.  
  
"That's good enough of a reason for me!" Gomamon shouted, shooting down the corridor.  
  
"How can you run so fast when you don't even have feet?" Joe asked as he ran to catch up.  
  
"WELL THAT'S NOT ENOUGH OF A REASON FOR ME!!!" Mimi whined, following anyway.  
  
"Yeah, I don't recall voting you king of the world." Tai challenged.  
  
"What, you got a better idea?" Matt shot back "Seeing how great your ideas have been lately, I'd love to hear it!"  
  
"Look," Tai replied "how was I suppose to know that we'd get lost?"  
  
"BECAUSE I SAID WE WOULD!!!" Matt shouted "WOULD IT KILL YOU TO LISTEN FOR A MOMENT?"  
  
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU!!!" Sora commanded "THIS ISN'T HELPING THINGS ANY!!!"  
  
"Yeah!" Joe added "We've got enough things trying to kill us, we don't need to be killing each other!"  
  
"DON'T GIVE ME ANY IDEAS!" Matt warned as he grudgingly let it slide.  
  
**********************  
  
Tentomon didn't realize he'd fallen asleep until he woke up. He had been dreaming that he was trapped in a room where time stood still; OK, maybe it wasn't much of a "dream". Izzy was still at his computer, showing no sign that he'd even moved an inch.  
  
"OH..." Tentomon moaned unhappily "Haven't you read all that yet?"  
  
"I'm afraid not. " Izzy stated, yawning "I have yet to find any discernible meaning to all this either."  
  
"So how far along are you anyway?" Tentomon asked, praying that the answer was 'VERY'.  
  
"Roughly one fourth of the way." Izzy explained deadpan.  
  
"WHAT?!?!?" Tentomon replied, not the least bit deadpan.  
  
"I'm trying to be thorough, Tentomon!" Izzy explained.  
  
"I'm all for thorough, but this is ridiculous!" Tentomon moaned.  
  
"I'm sorry but..." then Izzy froze.  
  
"What?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"THAT'S ALL!!!"  
  
"WHA-but- I thought you said you were only-" Tentomon stuttered.  
  
"I did!" Izzy answered, quite surprised himself "But that's all the code!"  
  
"Well what's all that?" Tentomon asked, pointing to the continuing writing on the laptop screen.  
  
"Greek." Izzy remarked, quite puzzled.  
  
"So can you read it now?" Tentomon asked, not that sure what "Greek" was, but hoping it was a written language.  
  
"Yes," Izzy answered "And it shouldn't take me as long to read this, assuming there's as much of it as there was code, but..."  
  
"I don't like the sound of that." Tentomon muttered nervously.  
  
"ARG!!!" Izzy shouted, quite startling Tentomon, who had never seen an outburst like that from Izzy "IT'S MORE JIBERISH!!!"  
  
"NOOOOO!!!" Tentomon howled, no longer surprised by Izzy's growl "It HAS to mean something!"  
  
"No...It's just as meaningless as before." Izzy sadly explained "Actually, it's even worse. There doesn't even seem to be any sentence structure this time. At least there was some sign of intelligence behind those inscriptions, this is just a chain of meaningless words!"  
  
Tentomon didn't even bother to reply this time (a sign of extreme dismay for that particular digimon) and just settled into his little space on the other side of the room again.  
  
**********************  
  
Now one could tell how long they had been running by this point. The unimaginable fear of knowing that the monster chasing them could simply pop out of the walls at any moment had a tendency to make time pass rather slowly. All they knew was they couldn't keep it up for too much longer. They were, of course, exhausted; but that wasn't it. The many showers of shrapnel that Andromon's attacks had rained upon them were taking their toll. None of their wounds were serious, but they were still wounds, so they hurt. Plus, the farther down the went to flee the menace, the darker and more cluttered the passages became. Despite their best efforts not to dwell on it, it was obvious that soon they wouldn't be able to see well enough to move quickly. And, obviously, the couldn't afford to slow down.  
  
"Does any one have a light?" Matt called back to the rest of the party.  
  
"I did..." Joe moaned "Why did I have to leave my bag with Izzy? I should have known I'd need it! STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!"  
  
"WELL, YOU DIDN'T, SO SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!!" Tai shouted back, quite ticked off.  
  
"HEY! I've got a light!" Agumon piped up.  
  
"Hey, yeah!" T.K. replied "You can do that fire breathing thing!"  
  
"But that doesn't stay put very long." Sora pointed out.  
  
"Well, it'll light things up for a minute." Agumon answered.  
  
"Hang on." Matt cut in "If we had something to light, we could make a torch."  
  
"Well, what do we have that'll burn?" Joe asked "All that's around here is metal."  
  
"We'd just need something to wrap around a poll or something." Matt corrected "Maybe some cloth?"  
  
"Well, it's not like we have much by the way of disposable clothes," Joe pointed out "This is all we have!"  
  
"Not Mimi!" Palmon replied stupidly "She's got tons of clothes in that suitcase!"  
  
Mimi replied only with a hostile glare.  
  
"OH, NOT THAT I'M SUGJESTING ANYTHIG, OF COURSE!" Palmon nervously shouted "OH, NO! I'M NOT SUGGESTING ANYTHING AT ALL! NOPE! NOT ME!"  
  
"I've got an extra shirt in my back pack!" T.K. offered "You can use it!"  
  
"No, it's all right T.K." Matt replied "We'll think of something."  
  
"Oh, no favoritism there!" Tai mocked under his breath (but still quite audible).  
  
"Hey, shut up Tai." Matt growled "IN FACT, LET'S USE A FEW LOCKS OF YOUR HAIR! YOU'VE GOT PLEANTY TO SPARE!"  
  
"Hey, we may not have to!" Biyomon cut in "Look up there!"  
  
Sure enough, in the far distance, obscured by the many pipes and girders in the way, a yellow light flickered in the distance.  
  
"I hope that's a good thing." Joe sighed to himself.  
  
"How could it be bad?" Patamon asked "Now we can see!"  
  
"Don't answer him, Joe!" Sora instructed, sure that Joe could come up with fifty things that could be lurking in the distance.  
  
"Why not?" T.K. asked, oblivious.  
  
"Yeah!" Gomamon added "If there could be big, giant, razor toothed monsters out there, why should we talk about it?"  
  
"COOL!" T.K. laughed, not quite grasping the darker side of Gomamon's sarcasm.  
  
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any "big, giant, razor toothed monsters" in the light. What did turn out to be there was a sudden patch of stone wall abruptly stuck between the metallic panels. The light came from two flames, similar to the ones they'd seen earlier, on either side of a small shaft in the stone leading down into an inky black none of them could see into.  
  
"HEY!" Agumon shouted, peering in "We could hide down there!"  
  
"I don't know." Matt replied somewhat needlessly, as every one else knew he was going to object "We don't know what could be down there."  
  
"Plus, we've already gone down a long way." Sora added "What if we can't get back up?"  
  
"Well, whatever we do, let's do it soon!" Joe pleaded "Andromon's way overdue for an appearance!"  
  
"Maybe he's bored?" Patamon offered, desperately hopping he was right.  
  
The truth was far more unsettling: Andromon was right beside them, contemplating his next move. If his prey traveled down the shaft they now halted before, Andromon would be forbidden to follow them. At first, it would seem to be prudent to attack immediately. Unfortunately, he was also forbidden to attack in a lethal manner until receiving orders to the contrary. Logically, they would attempt to flee the moment they became aware of his presence, and being so close to the shaft to the labyrinth, they would surely head that way. The only solution that presented it's self was to wait for them to distance themselves from the shaft. But that proved problematic as well. The group already showed signs that they suspected Andromon was no longer seeking them at the moment. They openly talked about waiting by the shaft, as he seemed to be staying away from it. Whether these creatures were incredibly smart or incredibly lucky was beyond him, but it proved beside the point. He simply couldn't stay there, he was incapable of gathering information on the creatures' combat capabilities unless they were in combat!  
  
Meanwhile, the exhausted group had indeed decided to rest for a moment (unanimously, in fact; the first time that had ever happened).  
  
"OOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!! My clothes are RUINED!!!" Mimi whined "Look at all these rips! And nothing gets blood out! Waitaminute.... `BLOOD?' AUGH!!! I'M BLEEDING!!!"  
  
"Yeah, getting blasted with shrapnel does that to you." Tai explained, tending to his own wounds.  
  
"So..." Gomamon piped up "Anybody got any bright ideas about what to do after we're done resting?"  
  
"I think that's obvious." Matt answered "We've got to figure out some way back out of this place without Andromon catching us."  
  
"After we get Izzy and Tentomon." Sora added.  
  
"Well, yeah." Matt said dismissively. Actually, he was about to suggest that they simply get themselves out, as Izzy seemed smart enough to get himself out, but suddenly that seemed like a bad thing to suggest, so he didn't.  
  
"Of course, it'd help if we had some idea how." Gabumon pointed out.  
  
"Well, there's obviously something about this place that's keeping him away." Biyomon offered.  
  
"Yeah, but what?" Sora asked.  
  
"Gee...I wish Izzy was here..." Patamon sighed when no one else said anything "He knows everything!"  
  
"Well, I hate to say `I told you so' yet again" Matt said, eyeing Tai coldly.  
  
"Hey, I'm just trying to help out!" Tai shot back.  
  
"Well then help us!" Matt countered angrily "DON'T HELP US!"  
  
"HEY!" Tai shouted back "Don't you go bossing me around! Nobody said you were the leader here!"  
  
"Well, I don't see anyone else here who wants the job." Matt said, pausing a moment to look around. When no one squirmed, he turned his attention back to Tai "And you obviously don't have a clue about anything."  
  
"Oh yeah?" Tai continued "Well what makes you so special?"  
  
"Hey, I just happen to have an ounce of common sense," Matt answered mockingly "something that seems to be a rare commodity around here."  
  
"And just what is `common sense', anyway?" Tai asked "Sitting around in a corner not doing anything? `Cause that's all you ever seem to want to do."  
  
"What I want is to wait until I can figure out the whole situation before doing something so that we don't do anything stupid!" Matt answered "You, on the other hand, seem to run on `stupid' exclusively!"  
  
"QUIT TALKING LIKE YOU KNOW EVERYTHING!!!" Tai shouted, running low on intelligent arguments.  
  
"Would you like me to talk like I don't know anything, like you?" Matt jabbed.  
  
With that, Tai snapped. Unleashing a sudden howl of rage, he lunged at Matt and tried to rid him of a few teeth. Unfortunately (for Tai), Matt was out of the way before Tai's fist was anywhere near it's target. Matt then spun his attacker around and, with an unfair amount of relish, landed several punched square in Tai's face.  
  
"TAI!!!" Sora shouted, rushing with Agumon to their fallen comrade's side "Are you all right?"  
  
"Get offa me!" Tai grunted, pushing them both away. He tried to shoot Matt a dirty look, but when every opening in your head seems to be pouring blood, it's kind of hard.  
  
"I hope somebody's learned a lesson here?" Matt admonished with a look of supreme satisfaction. Too embarrassed to say anything, Tai simply got up and ran, blindly, down the corridor.  
  
"Tai, come back here!" Sora and Agumon shouted, nearly in unison.  
  
"Matt, if Mom was here, you'd get in big trouble for fighting!" T.K. admonished.  
  
If `Mom' was here, I'd have given her some too, Matt thought angrily, knowing better than to say it.  
  
"Hey, where's everybody going?" Mimi asked, noticing that the group was beginning to dwindle.  
  
"Come on! We've got to catch Tai!" Sora shouted from someplace down the hallway.  
  
"Oh... All right..." Mimi moaned, loathing the thought of getting up again.  
  
Finally! Andromon thought with relief as the intruders began to leave the portal. Speed was now of the essence: he had to drive them far enough away from the portal that there was no longer any risk of them fleeing to the lower levels. This waiting had already taken far to long.  
  
He was going to enjoy this.  
  
"Whoa! Where're you going Mimi?" Joe shouted back as she and Palmon started running backwards.  
  
"Just a second!" Palmon called back "Mimi needs to get her shoes back on!"  
  
"What'd you even take `em off for?" Gomamon asked.  
  
"Hey, I've been wearing these things for days now!" Mimi complained "I needed a break!"  
  
Joe started to say something, but was cut off by a sudden explosion behind him.  
  
"I hope that wasn't what it sounded like..." He whimpered, looking behind him slowly. Sure enough, Andromon had emerged between the four of them and the rest of the group.  
  
DAMN! Andromon swore to himself I didn't mean to split them up! He now calculated that there was a 95% chance that the four by the portal would indeed use it. Theoretically, it wouldn't hinder all of Andromon's attempts to record information on them; of course, it would be hard to record the rest of their digivolutions when there was only one of the group left on whom the information wasn't already available. Still, it greatly bothered him that he'd made such a mistake. Sure enough, the four of them were already making their way to the portal. At least there was the two in the power center, they would be able to provide some additional information.  
  
"MIMI! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Joe shouted as his companion dove head first into the strange hole in the wall.  
  
"WHAT'S IT LOOK LIKE?" Mimi shouted back "I'M NOT STICKING AROUND THIS PLACE ANOTHER SECOND!"  
  
"But you don't know what's down there! It could be worse than Andromon!" Joe replied.  
  
"Uh, Joe? If that's the way you feel about it, why are we going down this way too?" Gomamon asked from behind. Suddenly (not a moment too soon) Joe came to the realization that he too had dived into the hole and was, at that moment, sliding at breakneck speed into God only knew what.  
  
"Oh, crap..."  
  
"HEY! WHERE'S JOE AND MIMI?" Sora shouted, looking around fanatically.  
  
"AND GOMAMON AND PALMON?" Biyomon added.  
  
"YEAH, THEM TOO!" Sora agreed, somewhat unconsciously.  
  
"They probably tried that shaft thing!" Matt guessed.  
  
"I hope there isn't anything bad down there..." Gabumon mused before turning his attention to more pressing matters "So, now what do we do?"  
  
"Running works for me!" Matt said, taking the lead.  
  
"Yes sir, oh mighty ruler sir!" Tai angrily shot back.  
  
"That works for me too!" Matt answered sarcastically, not feeling like knocking Tai around at the moment.  
  
"Tai, I know you're not very happy at the moment, but can you save it for later?" Agumon pleaded.  
  
"Hey, it's not my fault he's a jerk!" Tai defended.  
  
"Look, we can gang up on him later, `kay?"  
  
"Yeah, OK, fine." Tai shrugged.  
  
"So what are we going to do about the others?" T.K. panted, quite concerned.  
  
"There's not much we can do!" Matt grumpily replied.  
  
"We'll come back for them later, don't worry!" Sora assured him.  
  
"But how'll we be to find them?" T.K. pressed, for the first time, it seemed, grasping the seriousness of the situation "We don't even know where we are!"  
  
"We WILL find them. OK?" Sora answered firmly.  
  
"I...uh...yeah, OK..." T.K. agreed half-heartedly.  
  
That's right Sora, we WILL find them. We WILL find them...Sora told herself over and over again so she wouldn't forget.  
  
"Listen to her lying like that." Tai joked darkly.  
  
"Who said she was joking?" Gabumon asked "We just need to shake Andromon!"  
  
"Yeah, but how? I don't know it you noticed, but none of you guys seem to feel like digivolving at the moment, and you sure can't take him as you are!"  
  
"Hey, it's not our fault!" Agumon insisted "I don't know why it's not working!"  
  
"Can we worry about that later?" Matt cut in "There's nothing we can do about it right now, so don't whine about it."  
  
"You don't have to be so defeatist about it!" Tai jabbed "We're not quite dead yet!"  
  
"I'm not being defeatist, I'm being realistic!" Matt corrected "You should try it sometime!"  
  
"Who says I don't?" Tai asked.  
  
"I do!" Matt insisted "You don't know a thing about the real world!"  
  
"Why, `cause I don't wish I'd just roll over and die like you? What's real about that?"  
  
"Well, it's a lot more real that your dainty little picture perfect world!" Matt shot back.  
  
"OH! So THAT'S it!" Tai shouted with an odd sense of triumphant "Just `cause my life doesn't suck like yours, I don't have the marvelous wisdom it's given you!"  
  
"Yeah, that's about it." Matt grunted.  
  
"I think you're jealous!" Tai jabbed.  
  
At that, Matt let loose a cruel, jackal-like laugh "ME? Jealous of naive idiot like you? If I've ever said you weren't funny, Tai, I take it back!"  
  
"You go ahead and deny it all you want..." Tai mocked.  
  
"All right Tai, you listen to me." Matt interrupted, this time dead serious "I would sooner be skinned and eaten alive by mad rats than have to spend a second as you."  
  
With that, the group resigned to simply running once again.  
  
Silently.  
  
**********************  
  
"Tentomon? Tentomon? Where'd you go?" Izzy shouted.  
  
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Tentomon shouted back, hurrying into the large column again "What's the matter?"  
  
"Nothing's the matter," Izzy explained "I was just wondering where you were."  
  
"Oh, sorry." Tentomon apologized, blushing a bit "I was just looking to see if the others were back yet."  
  
"Oh, right!" Izzy remarked. He hadn't forgotten about them (not exactly) but they had been, frankly, the last thing on his mind "Any sign of anything?"  
  
"Nope." Tentomon sighed "How about you? Anything worth mentioning?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Izzy answered, turning back to the computer "I've completed the Greek section, and a Japanese section that followed it, and a Spanish section followed that. Now I'm reading a stretch of English."  
  
"They're not all gibberish like the rest, are they?" Tentomon asked, warily.  
  
"Well, yes and no.." Izzy responded "They're all gibberish but I don't think that it's quite as nonsensical as I'd assumed previously."  
  
"Pardon?" Tentomon asked, lost (he was getting used to being unable to follow Izzy).  
  
"Well, despite the difference in language and grammar," Izzy elaborated "every one of these sections seem to have the same meaning."  
  
"I thought you said they were gibberish." Tentomon cut in.  
  
"That's tight, I did. Sorry." Izzy grunted, rubbing his eyes, he'd been at this for some time and it seemed to be getting to him "Let me rephrase that: the words are gibberish, but it's the same gibberish repeated in each section."  
  
"But what about that computer code?" Tentomon asked "I thought you said something about it not actually being a language."  
  
"I know, but there are a few instances in which there seems to be a shared pattern. Look." Izzy directed, scrolling up to the top of the file and point to some symbols "This means `begin', it's repeated a number of times throughout the section. Now in the following sections," he continued, scrolling back to where he had been previously "other words for `begin' are used in roughly the same locations in their respective sections."  
  
"So it's just using the code as another alphabet?" Tentomon asked, hoping he had it right.  
  
"I believe so." Izzy explained "However, most of the code doesn't seem to have a direst meaning in traditionally language, so I can't speak with absolute certainty."  
  
"Um, OK." Tentomon sighed, deciding that since he knew what was going on for the moment, he should quit while he was ahead "I'll just stay out by the door in case the others get back. You just give a holler if-"  
  
"Tentomon!" Izzy interrupted suddenly.  
  
"-you need me?" Tentomon stuttered, finishing his sentence and asking what was going on at the same time.  
  
"I'm at the end of the document!"  
  
"Does it give an explanation?" he inquired, dashing to Izzy's side.  
  
"Maybe, look." Izzy directed, pointing to a small grouping of text at the bottom "These actually have a message."  
  
"YES!!!" Tentomon joyfully shouted "What do they say?"  
  
"`Go to...' and then there's another jumble of symbols I can't read." Izzy explained "However, I believe that it's the title of the next document."  
  
"That thing's better not be another bunch of gibberish again." Tentomon half threatened.  
  
"Don't worry," Izzy assured him "It's an image file this time."  
  
"I wonder what king of image?" Tentomon wondered as the pic loaded.  
  
"What...it's DIGI-SCRIPT!" Izzy exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, GREAT!" Tentomon moaned "At least we could read the other stuff-"  
  
"WAIT!" Izzy interrupted gazing intently at the black and white page of Digi-script while pulling up the previous page again.  
  
"What is it?" Tentomon asked timidly, somewhat stunned by the command. Instead of answering, Izzy simply read over the Japanese portion of the text, jumped back to the Digi-script, and back again.  
  
"Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon asked again.  
  
"Could it be?" Izzy thought aloud.  
  
"What?" Tentomon begged.  
  
"I...I don't believe it!" Izzy whispered, eyes widening.  
  
"Don't believe what?" Tentomon asked urgently. It was obvious that something good was happening, and he wanted to know what it was!  
  
"It's a Rosseta Stone!" Izzy half laughed (the first time Tentomon had ever seen anything like that out off him).  
  
"A WHAT?" Tentomon shouted, almost in tears with frustration.  
  
"THESE FILES MAKE UP SOME KIND OF TRANSLATION KEY!!!" Izzy exclaimed.  
  
Tentomon tried to respond, but he was to overwhelmed with the concept to articulate it. They actually had a key to Digi-script? He hadn't believed that such a thing could even exist! "How...How do you know?" he finally muttered.  
  
"Look!" Izzy giddily exclaimed "Remember when I showed you that word that was repeated in every portion of the text? Well, there's a symbol that's repeated in every respectable section of this Digi-script! And that's not the only instance! Virtually every one of these symbols seems to equal the words before!"  
  
"WOW...." Tentomon mumbled, still in awe "Does that means you can translate all the writing in here?"  
  
"I don't know, there seems to be quite a lot of symbols that aren't in this file, but I might!" Izzy answered, typing even more frantically than before "In the mean time, I'm going to see what these other files are for!"  
  
**********************  
  
"...I just couldn't resist, you know? There's just something about Tai that makes it easy to pick on him. I don't know what it is, just something."  
  
Joe didn't actually say anything about it, but didn't Mimi ever shut up? She'd just started rambling a minute after they got an idea where they were, and now she wouldn't shut up! The only thing that struck him as more amazing than her ability to ramble was the fact that she's managed to keep that big suitcase with her in that dive. It was almost like it'd been surgically attached to her hand.  
  
"But, I mean, it's not like I was lying about anything." Mimi continued "He is pretty cute. He oughta get a haircut, of course, but it's not that bad, you know? Matt's pretty cute too, but he just seems so frigid and all that. I bet he's never even had a girlfriend..."  
  
"Don't you have anything else to talk about?" Joe sighed finally "This is getting old."  
  
"Of course, they're not the only cute boys around here!" Mimi purred sensuously, suddenly right next to him with arms draped around his neck "There's a certain guy with glasses who's not too bad either!"  
  
"AUGH!!!" Joe panicked "STAY BACK, VIXEN! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! GO PIC ON TAI SOME MORE!"  
  
"JOE, YOU ARE PATHETIC!!!" Gomamon guffawed, thoroughly enjoying the entire scene.  
  
"Honestly!" Mimi sighed, shaking her head "Doesn't anyone know how to take a compliment around here?"  
  
"Not if they're Joe, they don't!" Gomamon snickered.  
  
"Oh, you're a lot of help!" Joe shouted before storming off, thoroughly embarrassed.  
  
"Come on, Joe!" Gomamon called, rushing to catch up "You have to admit it was pretty funny!"  
  
"No I don't!" Joe replied steadfastly as he made his way down the stony corridor.  
  
These new pathways were, thankfully, easier to navigate than those in the factory. In fact, they bore very little resemblance to the said factory whatsoever. Reasonably, if not spectacularly, tall and wide, the halls didn't really seem to have anything else remarkable about them. Everything seemed to be made of the same stone that made up the walls around the shaft that lead them there. Everything in these passages (much to Mimi's distaste) was quite plain, the only detail gracing the walls, outside of scattered cracks, was occasional torches lighting portions of the labyrinth. Labyrinth was, unfortunately, exactly what this place was turning out to be. While the factory was simply confusing, whoever designed these passages obviously had only an urge to mislead. In the few short minutes that the four had been searching for an exit (the shaft was too steep and slick to climb back up), they had already encountered five dead ends. Fortunately, they hadn't encountered Andromon or and friends of his. Still, they hadn't encountered much of anything, so it wasn't much comfort.  
  
"You wanna know what this place needs?" Mimi asked (well, it was almost a statement the way she said it.)  
  
"I bet you're going to tell us." Joe said under his breath, loud enough to hear though.  
  
"EVERYTHING!" Mimi answered "This place is soooo boring! At least that factory had some activity!"  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Gomamon cut in "I didn't realize you enjoyed being hunted down to be killed!"  
  
"I was talking about the decor!" Mimi corrected "I'm not much for all that gray, but all the different levels was pretty cool. But this crapy basement thing...AUGH!!! I can't wait `till we get out of here!"  
  
"And that would be how, exactly?" Joe asked.  
  
"Well, um...let's see..." Mimi began, straining her brain to the limits (oh, that's far) "Well, we just...um...Why don't we listen for some noise from outside, and we'll follow that?"  
  
"There aren't any noises coming in from outside." Joe shot back, becoming more annoyed by the moment "In fact, the only noises in this whole...whatever it is are the ones coming out of you."  
  
"Uh, OK..." Mimi replied, searching for a new solution "...well...OH! We can look for a map or some kind of directions!"  
  
"There hasn't been directions, ANYTHING for that matter, in this whole place so far. And even if they were, we wouldn't be able to read them."  
  
"Maybe you couldn't, but us Digimon can!" Palmon replied.  
  
"Like you could read that stuff that Izzy stayed behind to check out?" Joe asked.  
  
"Um..." Palmon stuttered, embarrassed, before shifting attention to someone else "Any more ideas Mimi?"  
  
"Oh..." Mimi moaned, getting discouraged but trying not to think about it "...um...There was something on that kid's meal bag that said how a blind person could get out of a maze...What was it?"  
  
"Get someone who can see to help him!" Gomamon joked.  
  
"OH!!! NOW I REMEMBER!" Mimi exclaimed "You just keep one hand on the wall and start walking! Eventually, you'll get to the exit!"  
  
"But to do that, we'd have to walk down every single hall in this place!" Joe pointed out, having had that same kid's meal himself "It could take days. WEEKS even!"  
  
"OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhh!!!!!!" Mimi moaned, bursting into tears "You're right! We're not ever gonna get out of here! We're just gonna wander around until we starve to death and die!"  
  
"Oh, HELL, NO!" Gomamon cried, covering his ears "Not this again!"  
  
"Hey, come on Mimi!" Joe shouted over the din "You don't know that!"  
  
"Yes I do and so do you!" Mimi cried.  
  
Joe couldn't help but winch at that; he had been acting jerk a jerk lately...  
  
"Hey, I didn't mean all that stuff, Mimi." he insisted, trying to sound like he meant it.  
  
"But you were right..." Mimi whimpered, her breath starting to give out "We're just going-".  
  
"NO WE'RE NOT!" Joe said, mustering up all the force he could manage. Mimi was too startled by Joe's outburst not to shut up. Indeed, Joe himself was rather surprised to hear it coming out of him. But he certainly wasn't about to put up with Mimi's whining much longer. Well...That and... Well...  
  
He just couldn't stand the thought that he'd made her cry like that.  
  
"Look," he continued, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder "I was just sounding off. But we're never going to get out of here if we can't be level headed about things."  
  
"I...I..." Mimi stuttered, blushing a bit "...OK, I guess..."  
  
"OK, so what do your level heads think we should do to get out of this little maze?" Gomamon mocked.  
  
"I don't know," Joe confessed "but we'll come up with something."  
  
"Hey, why don't we ask him?" Palmon piped up, pointing behind them. There, at the far end of the hall, stood the first sign of life they'd seen since falling into the maze. And, frankly, they didn't like it: a single, red eye burned in the murky distance; coming towards them.  
  
"Uh, oh..." Gomamon growled lowly, positioning himself in front of Joe.  
  
"Level head, Mimi. Level head..." Mimi whispered to herself.  
  
"WHO GOES THERE?" bellowed a deep, strangely noble voice.  
  
"Uh...Friends?" Mimi yelped, trembling.  
  
Suddenly, the speaker stepped into the light of one of the torches. It was a huge, centaur-like creature covered in pieces of armor that seemed to be bolted directly into it's deep brown skin. It's face was totally hidden behind a steel, gladiator's helmet aside from that single, red eye.  
  
"HEY!" Palmon shouted "That's Centarumon!"  
  
"I've heard of you!" Gomamon said, suddenly looking much happier "You're supposed to be the greatest warrior on File Island!"  
  
"Uh...That's not the kind of person I want to meet lurking around in a place like this." Mimi commented.  
  
"I have trained longer than you have been in existence to earn that title. You are correct." Centarumon answered "Now what is your business in this place?"  
  
"Oh, we don't have any business!" Palmon giggled "We're just lost, that's all!"  
  
"WHAT?" Centarumon snarled "You violate this temple for no reason?"  
  
"TEMPLE?" Mimi started "I thought the temple was outside this place!"  
  
"Fool!" Centarumon hissed "That was but a security barrier! This is the temple! Do you know nothing?"  
  
"Hey! Take it easy! They're not from around here! " Gomamon laughed nervously, not mentioning that he wasn't from the area himself.  
  
"It is of no consequence." Centarumon interrupted "You will be punished for this incursion!"  
  
"...P...P...`Punished'?" Palmon stuttered.  
  
"Remember that stuff I said about staying level headed?" Joe asked, his voice quivering "Forget it; every word."  
  
With that, he took off down the dark hall way, the other three rushing to catch up.  
  
"But we just got away from Andromon!" Mimi shrieked "We're not supposed to still get chased! It's not fair!"  
  
"Welcome to the real world!" Gomamon sneered, not bothering to look back at her.  
  
************************  
  
"Ahh, there we go!" Izzy sighed contentedly.  
  
"All right!" Tentomon exclaimed "Is it working now?"  
  
"I believe so." Izzy answered "It would appear that all the remaining files were components of a single program."  
  
"Do we know what it's for yet?"  
  
"I'm about to find that out." Izzy replied, activating the program. In a flash, the screen was filled with a control panel of some sort. Just over half of the panel was a series of buttons that were labeled in an alphabet Izzy was unfamiliar with. The rest of the screen was a window of some kind that was totally empty.  
  
"FINALY!" Tentomon joyously exclaimed "Something I can read!"  
  
"Is this Digicode?" Izzy inquired  
  
"You bet!" Tentomon nodded "I can tell you about everything that's there!"  
  
"Very well, what does it mean?"  
  
"Um..." Tentomon hummed, scratching his head "That looks like...and then there's...OK, so that's...I have no idea."  
  
"Tentomon..." Izzy sighed, exasperated.  
  
"Sorry!" Tentomon apologized "I can tell you what this stuff says, but I don't know what it's talking about. Most of the buttons seem to be for changing some kind of settings, but they're all stuff like "alpha" or "twelve", stuff that doesn't tell you much."  
  
"But that's only most of them, right?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Yeah." Tentomon replied "For example, that top one says `select file for translation'"  
  
"YES!" Izzy shouted, for the second time that day "This program must be designed to translate the Digi-script into other languages!"  
  
"But...wasn't that what the other thing was for?"  
  
"I don't believe so." Izzy answered "Well, not any more. It would certainly seem quite redundant."  
  
"Well, anyway. How do you think it works?"  
  
"Why don't we find out?" Izzy proposed, clicking on the "select file" button.  
  
Upon being activated, the button grew into a window containing a list of file names collected from through the computer. Among these files were the photos of the Digi-script lining the chamber walls. Sure that an intelligent message couldn't be found from only on portion at a time, Izzy selected all of the photos at once. Somehow, the translation seemed to be able to determine right away that the photos had been taken of a circular chamber because, when the selection window closed, the main window contained a diagram of all the Digi-script in a three dimensional column.  
  
"Well now, that's convenient!" Tentomon commented, admiring the diagram.  
  
"Tentomon?" Izzy asked, more interested in the task at hand "I assume that one of these controls is to initiate the translation procedure?"  
  
"OH! That's right, the bottom one."  
  
"All right." Izzy mused "Cross your fingers."  
  
"I would be if I had any." Tentomon assured.  
  
With a click, the screen changed once again. Instead of a page of text, which Izzy had been hoping to find, the new window was simply a gauge of some kind, not unlike something you would find on a car dashboard. There didn't seem to be any markings along the vertical column, it simply rose to the top of the screen, a new one overlapping the previous when it reached the top of the screen. Izzy was about to look into shutting the simple program off when he noticed two odd details. First, with every trip to the top, the gauge/column started moving faster. Second, as the speed rose, a faint whistling sound began to emanate from the laptop. Izzy checked the speakers, but the didn't seem to be the source of the whine. Deciding to investigate the rest of the laptop, Izzy discovered a third thing, this time something quite troubling: the laptop was beginning to get hot.  
  
VERY hot.  
  
Izzy was so startled by the sudden heat that he dropped the laptop unceremoniously to the floor. As he cradled is slightly burned hand, realized that the screen was beginning to glow strangely.  
  
"Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon asked nervously.  
  
"I know, this is becoming quite unusual."  
  
"Well, yeah, but that's not what I meant. Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?"  
  
"Yes, the laptop is becoming quite hot." Izzy answered, gently rubbing his hand.  
  
"No, I meant `is the ROOM getting hotter?', because I'm beginning to feel rather ill."  
  
Izzy looked back to answer no, but couldn't manage much more that a stifled gasp when he saw that Tentomon was beginning to glow in the same manner as the screen.  
  
"Tentomon! What's happening?"  
  
"That's what I was asking...AUGH!!!" Tentomon screamed, only then realizing his luminescence and promptly panicking "HELP! HELP! I'M RADIOACTIVE OR SOMETHING! IT'S A DIGIMON MELTDOWN!!!"  
  
"TENTOMON, CALM DOWN!" Izzy instructed "Running around like that may only aggravate your condition!"  
  
"`Condition'?" Tentomon continued "AUGH!!! I'VE GOT A CONDITION!!!"  
  
"TENTOMON, CALM DOWN!!!" Izzy shouted.  
  
"HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? I'M BURNING UP AND I'M GLOWING AND IT'S SCARING THE HECK OUT OF ME!!!"  
  
Izzy frantically turned back to the laptop to try and determine if and how the program was affecting Tentomon. Unfortunately, all of the laptop was glowing by this point, and the heat emanate from it grew more incredible by the second. Even though it was already unheard of for a program to physically affect a computer in that fashion, Izzy was even more dumbfounded as to how Tentomon could be affected by it, as he was in no way connected to the computer.  
  
Wait... "Connected"?  
  
That was it! Trying to get as close as he could without burning himself, Izzy examined the Digivice, still plugged into the laptop. Sure enough, it seemed to be affected by the program. Not only was it glowing and whistling as well, but the center screen was displaying a quickly rising meter just like the laptop had been (it was glowing to brightly to see now). There was something else, however, the large, round button on the left was flashing as well, despite the fact that Izzy had never seen any sign of a light in it. Confusion aside, Tentomon had made it reasonable clear that there must be some connection between the digimon and the Digivices if they actually did trigger the digivolving process. Not waiting to figure things out any further, Izzy wrapped his hand in his shirt sleeve and mashed the laptop's power button. In an instant, the glowing and whining stopped increasing and began to fade. Likewise, Tentomon began to return to normal.  
  
"WHEW!" Tentomon sighed, collapsing against the wall "What just happened?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Izzy confessed, his mind raising even faster than usual. As he wrestled with the perplexing questions at hand, Izzy couldn't help but drift off into other subjects (something that happened VERY rarely with him). Ever since his arrival, Izzy had been continuously greeted with more and more questions every day; questions like Izzy had never know he would need to ask. Suddenly, reality it's self seemed to have been turned upside down. Nothing seemed to make sense any more. Perplexing as it was, however, Izzy found that he was far more exhilarated by it that disturbed. Often, without really meaning too, Izzy had entertained the thought that, given his unorthodox intellectual capacity at his young age, he might eventually learn and do everything he could well before the end of his life. What would he do then? Of course, he quickly discounted these macabre thoughts, as there was probably no way for anyone to learn "everything" in a single lifetime. Still, it had already started to happen in a way. In the back of Izzy's mind he'd begun to feel dissatisfied with his studies. Having mastered the "basics" to almost every subject ever taught in schools before he'd even begun going to school, virtually all of his life had become dedicated to researching various theories, philosophies, postulations, and other ideas most people didn't even know existed. They were fascinating at first, but Izzy had begun to notice several disturbing threads that seemed to run through them all. They all seemed to be re-dressings or perversions of previous concepts; old philosophies applied to different subjects and passed of as new ones. Even worse, as intellectually challenging as they may have been, Izzy had grudgingly begun to accept that most of them had very little bearing in reality, usually requiring the student to forsake all logic to follow. He had been pretending not to care, but it was beginning to bother perplex him greatly.  
  
But none of these things seemed present in the digital world. The very thing that confounded him the most, the fact that all law of nature and physics and...well, everything, they simply didn't apply anymore, it fascinated him to no end. Nothing seemed to be simple rehashes of past thought; in fact, it sometimes seemed that there was no thought at all. But that wasn't true at all, everything seemed to fit together perfectly, despite the ever present conundrums that should have pulled it all apart at the seams. What was more, he could see and touch everything. Everything, even the episode with the laptop and Tentomon, occurred before his own eyes, not simply in the mind of some strange collage lecturer. The shear freshens of it all was quite unlike anything he had ever known. The total newness of each an every question only seemed to power him that much more in his quests for solutions.  
  
Wait a minute... "powered..."  
  
Izzy snapped back to the matter at hand when the word cut into his mind. The top of the column was covered with cables that seemed to spread into every room and facility in the building. Why? There didn't seem to be anything in the column but the Digi-script. Suddenly, Izzy thought of something else: where was the light in the shaft coming from? Rather than having any specific lighting fixture, the walls themselves seemed to be glowing. So where was the power coming from? All those cables could have been providing the power, but they didn't seem to be coming out of anything and entering the column, but the seemed to be feeding off the column into the rest of the facility. Could the column it's self be the source of power? If so, how? Again, it was empty aside from the Digi-script. Suddenly, Izzy was greeted with a sudden flash of inspiration that he almost shunned without even intertwining. It was totally ridiculous! Sure, the rest of the digital world made little sense, but this was totally laughable! Still, Izzy felt that he needed to find a way to test it.  
  
Gazing up at the Digi-script, Izzy formed a rough idea for a test and began to rummage around in Joe's duffel bag. It certainly proved to be an enlightening journey; the bag must have had at least one of every trinket ever conceived by man. After a good minute of searching, Izzy came up with a small box of meddling clay. What possible use Joe could have had with it was beyond Izzy, but he certainly had a use for it.  
  
"Uh, Izzy? What's going on?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"I may have figured something out, but I'm not sure yet," Izzy explained "So I'm going to test my idea."  
  
"What exactly is that idea?" Tentomon inquired.  
  
"Believe me," Izzy half laughed "if I told you, you'd never believe I even considered it."  
  
While Tentomon puzzled over the odd answer, Izzy began to apply the clay into the crevices that made up one of the Digi-script characters. He had only begun to do so when, suddenly, the column went pitch black. At the same moment, the grinding drone of the machinery suddenly came to a screeching halt. Quickly, almost panickingly, Izzy pulled the clay out and everything became normal again.  
  
"What in heaven's name did you just do, Izzy?" Tentomon shouted.  
  
Rather than answer, Izzy quickly dove back into Joe's bag and fished out a note pad, a pencil, and a pack of bandages. With this odd assortment in hand, Izzy ran outside of the column.  
  
"Hey, wait up!" Tentomon called, tagging along "What are you doing now?"  
  
Izzy simply set work silently, tearing some of the sheets and bunching them together into a good sized ball. He then took the bandages and pencil and turned to Tentomon.  
  
"Could you give me a boost so I can see that torch?" he asked.  
  
"Um...Well, I can try." Tentomon agreed, weeping his arms around Izzy and taking flight. Correction, trying valiantly to take flight. In reality, they only made it a few inches off the ground.  
  
"WOW!" Tentomon panted "You're a lot heavier than you look!"  
  
"We don't have to got very high," Izzy assured "just close enough for me to get a good look at the Digi-script."  
  
Eventually (it seemed much longer to Tentomon than Izzy), they made it up to the torch and Izzy quickly began to copy the Digi-script onto one of the bandages.  
  
"Are you finished with...whatever you're doing?" Tentomon asked wearily.  
  
"Not yet." Izzy answered.  
  
"How about now?"  
  
"Not yet."  
  
"NOW?"  
  
"TENTOMON! I'm going as fast as I can!"  
  
"Well go faster than that, please, you seem to get heavier all the time!"  
  
"OK! There!"  
  
With that, Izzy and Tentomon fell unceremoniously to the floor. While Tentomon stated where he'd fallen, taking a well deserved rest, Izzy tore the bandage off it's roll and wrapped it around the ball of paper so that the copied Digi-script mimicked that found on the rim of the torch. For a moment, nothing seemed to be happening. Then, a small wisp of smoke snaked out of the top. In a second, the entire ball burst into flames. Watching the flame consume the paper ball, Izzy's mind was lost in such a furious mess of ideas that he could scarcely begin to comprehend what he was seeing. Somehow, he'd been right.  
  
"But..." he thought aloud "This is impossible."  
  
************************  
  
Andromon was steadily becoming more and more troubled by the situation as it developed. The most immediate of the increasing problems was the unpredictable nature of his prey. The seemed to relish in behaving irrationally: making bizarre turns time and time again despite his continued attempts to herd them to areas where they would be more manageable. He constantly left painfully obvious routes for them to follow, but, far too often, the would react in truly idiotic manners. Just as troubling was the six who were unaccounted for. The four in the lower levels probably wouldn't be able to cause much trouble, they would no doubt be annihilated by the guardian soon. It would definitely reflect badly upon Andromon for allowing them to escape, but the two in the power center worried him far more. At first, he'd assumed that the couldn't cause any trouble, but the momentary loss of power seemed to suggest otherwise. Still, he couldn't risk loosing sight of the rest of his prey to deal with them. Everything seemed to be going wrong that day.  
  
If Andromon thought he was having a bad day, he should have asked his prey how they were doing:  
  
"MATT!" T.K. panted from behind "I don't think I can run any more!"  
  
"You're going to have to!" Matt instructed "We can't stop until we shake Andromon!"  
  
"But how do we do that?" Gabumon asked, discouraged.  
  
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" Matt snapped.  
  
"GASP!" Tai mocked "OUR FEARLESS LEADER DOSEN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!"  
  
"Oh, and I suppose you do?" Matt challenged.  
  
"No, but at least I don't pretend that I do." Tai shot back.  
  
"Man..." Sora moaned "I hope Joe and Mimi are having more fun than we are."  
  
************************  
  
"Impressive." Centarumon bellowed "You're ingenuity far surpasses your physical ability."  
  
"Well I'm glad he approves." Joe whispered, trying his best to stay out of sight.  
  
"Still, all the ingenuity in this world won't keep you safe forever." Centarumon continued, not caring that he couldn't actually see who he was addressing "I won't continue to be as forgiving as I have been."  
  
Indeed, he had been extraordinarily forgiving. For some time now, the fearsome digimon had been playing cat-and-mouse with the foursome. Not wanting to end the game too soon, he'd given them several chances to evade him when they were sure that he'd cornered them.  
  
"I...can't...take...much...more...of...this!" Mimi whimpered, teetering on the edge of crying again.  
  
"MIMI!" Gomamon hissed "I FORBID you to cry!"  
  
"You can't forbid me anything!" Mimi hissed back.  
  
"Sure I can if it'll keep helmet head off our back!" Gomamon insisted.  
  
"`Helmet head' eh?" Centarumon laughed, suddenly next to them  
  
"AUGH!!!" Gomamon screamed, leaping almost to the ceiling "I-I-I meant that in the most respectful way! REALLY!"  
  
"Your humor is considerable." Centarumon responded, sarcastically "Perhaps I should keep you alive just too make me laugh."  
  
"YEAH! YEAH! THAT WORKS FOR ME!" Gomamon quickly agreed "ESPECIALLY THE `KEEPING ME ALIVE' PART!"  
  
"SHUT UP, GOMAMON!" Joe shouted, grabbing the digimon and tearing in the opposite direction of Centarumon. As usual, he waited until they were out of sight before giving chase.  
  
************************  
  
Tentomon was getting more and more worried about Izzy. After his little fire-starting escapade, he began pouring over the translation program, not saying a thing outside of demanding a translation for the buttons. The, all of a sudden, he jumped up and ran out into the factory. It was all Tentomon could do to keep up.  
  
"I don't mean to sound insubordinate," he panted, dashing behind Izzy "but if you don't explain just what's happening, I'm going to get quite annoyed!"  
  
"I've got to find the others!" Izzy explained, for the umpteenth time.  
  
"Yes, we've been over that." Tentomon replied "WHY?"  
  
"I this information I've discovered about the Digi-script!" Izzy stated "I've got to tell them!"  
  
"When you're done with them, I trust you'll finally get around to telling me!" Tentomon poked, hoping to guilt Izzy into an explanation. It didn't work.  
  
"OH, COME ON IZZY!" he finally shouted "I WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU FOUND!"  
  
"Somehow, that set of Digi-script is powering these whole factory!" Izzy finally explained.  
  
"What?" Tentomon asked, suddenly unsure of Izzy's mental state "Are you sure you didn't bonk you head when we hit the floor?"  
  
"Tentomon!" Izzy insisted "Didn't you see what happened in that room? That Digi-script made up some kind of program that generates energy! That's why everything powered down when I obscured one of the characters! And what about when we reproduced it in the computer? The same kind of power generation must have begun within the laptop!"  
  
"Uh, OK..." Tentomon stuttered, comprehending Izzy but not sure where he was going.  
  
"And then, when I reproduced the Digi-script around the torches, it produced an exothermic reaction! That Digi-script program must have been what was generating the flames!"  
  
"But...HOW?" Tentomon finally piped up "I understand what you're saying, but...I...I just don't see how it could happen!"  
  
"I'm afraid I don't know how either." Izzy confessed "All I know is that it is."  
  
"So...What does it mean?" Tentomon asked.  
  
Izzy didn't respond. Common sense dictated he keep his mouth shut on the theories quickly developing in his head until he knew whether or not they were true. Under most circumstances, he wouldn't even have entertained them outside of his dreams, but given everything else he'd seen over the past two weeks, he knew these were far from "most circumstances".  
  
"WHOA!" Tentomon shouted suddenly "WHAT IS THAT?"  
  
Izzy, pulled back to reality, came to a screeching halt on the edge on a gapping hole in the walk way. The immediately area around the hole, and some distance down the hall on the other side, carried a general look reminiscent of a house of cards after an earthquake.  
  
"What happened?" Izzy wondered, not quite aware that he was speaking.  
  
"Um, are you sure this is the way they came?" Tentomon asked, worriedly.  
  
"Hopefully, I was mistaken." Izzy replied "Even if this is the way they went, we can't follow over that hole."  
  
"Well, there was a junction a ways back." Tentomon offered.  
  
"Really?" Izzy started, not recalling it.  
  
"I'd say ten, fifteen minutes ago. It was rather obscured by several support beams in front of it."  
  
"I suppose that would be worth investigating." Izzy agreed, setting of backwards.  
  
************************  
  
Pumkinmon and Gatsumon hadn't been able to pull themselves away from the temple. The couldn't convince themselves that their friends would ever return from the massive factory, but they simply couldn't leave knowing they were in there. It had been some time since they last were this depressed.  
  
"AWWWW, THIS SUCKS!" Pumkinmon moaned, getting up "That's it, I'm really gone this time!"  
  
"OK, bye." Gatsumon responded without looking. After ten seconds he added "Welcome back."  
  
"Yeah. Well, maybe ten more minutes." Pumkinmon grudgingly responded, resuming his spot "But they're not coming out."  
  
"You should listen to your friend." a low, raspy voice suddenly said from behind them "He's quite correct."  
  
The two digimon whirled around and found themselves face to face (well, face to knee) with Leomon. At least, it looked like Leomon, sort of. His normally yellow/orange fur was now dark black and betrayed a sickening array of bulging veins all across his body. He stared down at them with a pair of blank, glassy eyes hissed at them "Leave this place. Now."  
  
"Uhh, OK!" Pumkinmon and Gatsumon shouted in unison, breaking into a mad dash for the Pea. With the two pests no longer a concern, Leomon traveled up the winding stairs that lead to the temple gates. Andromon may have proven unable to handle the situation, but he wouldn't disappoint Devimon.  
  
************************  
  
The other pathway Tentomon had spotted lead straight to a large, descending staircase. Although there was little sign that anyone had traveled the staircase, curiosity eventually prevailed and the two traveled down. After a disconcerting amount of time spent traveling down, Izzy and Tentomon found themselves in a room that seemed to be the exact opposite of the factory above. Instead of more machinery, the entire chamber was made of some kind of stone. Directly across from the opening where the walkway opened into the chamber stood a giant doorway of some kind. Somewhat predicably, the far left and right walls were covered in Digi-script.  
  
"Hey, do you think that they went exploring this passage way?" Tentomon asked, peering into the doorway and finding a winding stone hall.  
  
"I don't know." Izzy mumbled "I think I know something that would seem to take precedent, however."  
  
"Oh, no..." Tentomon moaned "Not more Digi-script."  
  
"Don't worry." Izzy assured him "This shouldn't take anywhere near as long."  
  
"Well, what do you want to do?" Tentomon asked, not sure he wanted to know.  
  
"Come here, I'll show you." Izzy instructed. When Tentomon obeyed, he explained "Look, there's some kind of buildup over several of these characters. Now I believe that this Digi-script makes up another program, like the others-"  
  
"But because all thus stuff in on them, it's not working?" Tentomon interrupted.  
  
"Exactly!" Izzy confirmed "So, if we clean them out, we should be able to find out what the program's function is!"  
  
Quickly, Tentomon set to work scrapping away the crust residue that filled in the Digi-script. Suddenly, however, he stopped.  
  
"Um, Izzy?" he asked "What if we don't want to find out what it does?"  
  
"We'll wait until it's working to worry about that." Izzy explained, scrapping away.  
  
"So, Izzy," Tentomon piped up again after a few minutes of silence "How are we going to know if we've got the program running?" The words had barely left his mouth when a bright green glow suddenly enveloped the room.  
  
"That would be a good sign." Tentomon muttered.  
  
The bulk of the room was now filled with a huge, hologram of some kind. It was made up almost entirely of green, vector-like graphics making up some kind of 3D maze. The only things that weren't green in the diagram were a set of colored dots that seemed to be attempting to travel through the maze. Their progress appeared to be hindered by stray dot that made a habit of intercepting the others and driving them in the opposite direction. Izzy reached his hand out into the diagram to see if it was, in fact, a hologram and was met with quite a surprise. While his hand did pass through the lines, the changed from being simple lines to a detailed depiction of a stone passage similar to the ones next to the doorway. After waving his hand around for a moment or two, he determined that it was a map of passages stretching from the passage they were in at the moment and had been designed to provide greater information when the user indicated the section he desired it in. Not wanting to trouble Tentomon again, he explained all of this too him as he thought of it.  
  
"OK, I guess that makes sense." Tentomon agreed "I don't know why they'd wand a big maze under the factory, though."  
  
"It also doesn't tell us what these dots are." Izzy added, he attempt to bring up a more detailed look at the as he had with the passages, but encountered an embarrassing obstacle.  
  
"Um, Tentomon?"  
  
"I'm one step ahead of you." Tentomon responded, walking directly under the dots and balling up on the ground "There you go!" Using Tentomon as a stepping stool, Izzy quickly selected the four dots.  
  
"Well? What do you see?" Tentomon inquired from below.  
  
"Is that what it look's like?" Izzy asked himself, scrutinizing the hazy images that released the dots.  
  
"What does it look like?" Tentomon asked again.  
  
""IT'S JOE AND MIMI!" Izzy shouted.  
  
"WHAT?" Tentomon replied, instinctually jumping up and sending Izzy toppling down on top of him.  
  
"OOoooohhh...Sorry about that." Tentomon groaned.  
  
"Don't worry about it." Izzy replied, watching the stray dot intercept the again, I can think of some other things you should worry about."  
  
"Yeah." Tentomon agreed "Like `what is that other thing that's chasing them?' and `why are they the only ones in there?'."  
  
"Exactly," Izzy agreed, pulling out his laptop "and I think I know how to answer those questions."  
  
"What are you going to do?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"Well, hopefully Mimi's cell phone isn't experiencing the same difficulties my computer was. I'm it's not, I may be able to contact her and get some answers." Izzy explained, suddenly glad that Mimi had insisted upon giving her number to every boy at the whole camp.  
  
************************  
  
"Gomamon?" Joe panted "Now would be a very good time for you start digivolving!"  
  
"Whaddaya think I've been trying to do?" Gomamon shot back.  
  
"Well what's wrong?" Mimi asked.  
  
"How the hell should I know?" Gomoamon complained "I'm not exactly an expert!"  
  
"But I thought we just had to be in danger and you'd do it!" Mimi continued.  
  
"Yeah, me too!" Gomamon added "But that's not working, is it?"  
  
"Uh, Mimi?" Palmon interrupted "Something in your pocket is making a weird noise."  
  
"Huh?" Mimi started, fishing her cell phone out "Who'd be calling me now?"  
  
"Who cares?" Joe answered "ANSWER IT!"  
  
"Hello?" Mimi nervously said into the phone.  
  
"Mimi? can you hear me?" a familiar voice asked.  
  
"IZZY?" Mimi shouted "Is that you?"  
  
"Yes!" Izzy sighed "What's going on? How'd you get down here, and where are the others?"  
  
"`Here'?" Mimi asked instead of answering anything "Where are you?"  
  
"I'm at the entrance to this maze, or whatever it is." Izzy explained "There's a map of the entire maze here, so I'm going to try and guide you out."  
  
"YES!" Mimi cheered "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!!!"  
  
"What?" Joe shouted "What's going on?"  
  
"So where do we go?" Mimi asked, ignoring Joe.  
  
"First things first." Izzy insisted "Where are the others?"  
  
"Last I saw, they were still in the factory being chased by Andromon." Mimi explained.  
  
"WHAT?" Izzy shouted, sincerely hoping that "Andromon" wasn't the cause of all the damage they'd encountered earlier.  
  
"He's this big, creepy digimon that was chasing all of us until the four of us jumped down here."  
  
"Well then, who's that chasing you at the moment?" Izzy asked nervously.  
  
"Huh? How'd you know about that?" Mimi asked.  
  
"There are indicators on the map that represent everything in the maze." Izzy curtly explained "Now who is it?"  
  
"It this big weirdo called `Centarumon'." Mimi answered "Anyway, how do we get out?"  
  
"Huh? Get out?" Joe asked, surprised.  
  
"Fill us in! We're dying over here!" Gomamon begged.  
  
"Izzy's got a mop of this place and he's gonna tell us how to get out!" Mimi exclaimed joyously.  
  
"Let's see if he can tell us something else." Joe said, snatching the phone.  
  
"HEY! Give that back!" Mimi complained.  
  
"Izzy?" Joe asked, ignoring Mimi "You've got this whole digivolving thing figured out, right?"  
  
"Um, I wouldn't go that far..." Izzy confessed.  
  
"Well, anyway, Gomamon and Palmon can't digivolve down here. I thought you said we just had to be in danger for it to work."  
  
"That was my theory, yes." Izzy answered "But it's not happening?"  
  
"Nope." Joe confirmed.  
  
"Well, I suppose that...wait a minute." Izzy said "Turn around, you needed to take a left at that crossroads."  
  
"Oh, OK. Everybody this way!" Joe directed.  
  
"Good. Good." Izzy replied, watching their progress "Now, don't turn off of that hallway; keep straight."  
  
"So, how long `till we get out?" Mimi asked, snatching the phone back from Joe.  
  
"I won't be able to make an estimate until I see how quickly you can...wait..."  
  
"Izzy?" Mimi asked, annoyed.  
  
"It's Centarumon!" Izzy shouted "He's at the other end of the hall! Take that other path to the right!"  
  
"Wha...OK!" Mimi replied, hurriedly informing her companions where to go.  
  
"OK, good" Izzy mumbled, watching their progress "Now take the next left. Don't take the coming left, but the next one."  
  
"Uh, right! Err-left! Uh, you know!" Mimi replied, nervously.  
  
"NO WAIT!" Tentomon shouted, tugging at Izzy's shirt.  
  
"I SEE IT! I SEE IT!" Izzy shouted back.  
  
"See what?" Joe asked, the shouting having been loud enough for him to hear.  
  
"Centarumon again!" Izzy answered "Somehow, he managed to slip into that hall too! Just keep going straight!"  
  
"Izzy," Mimi said, getting mad "I'm starting to lose faith in your directions."  
  
"I can't help it!" Izzy insisted "Centarumon must know some passages that aren't on this map! Anyway, take a right at that fork an then take the first left."  
  
"So, um, where is Centarumon?" Mimi asked after they had taken Izzy's directions.  
  
"Technically, he's nearby," Izzy replied "but your paths don't seem to connect."  
  
"I don't like that `seem' there." Mimi complained.  
  
"Well, as I said," Izzy explained "Centarumon seems to know of passages that aren't on the map."  
  
"So hurry up and put some distance between you and him!" Tentomon finished.  
  
"That sounds good to me!" Gomamon replied, having been eavesdropping on the conversation.  
  
"You'll want to...uh oh." Izzy mused.  
  
"Did he just say `uh oh'?" Palmon whimpered.  
  
"Centarumon's moving parallel to your position!" Izzy shouted "He must know that you're over there!"  
  
"Get moving! NOW!" Tentomon instructed, needlessly.  
  
The foursome tried to comply, but Centarumon decided to demonstrate how he knew of passages not on the map: he made them. With a sudden, thunderous crash, he exploded through the wall directly in front of them.  
  
"AUGH!" Tentomon screamed "I CAN'T WATCH!" but he did anyway, as did Izzy, as the four dots that represented their friends made an abrupt 180 and began to flee in the other direction. In the maze it's self, the four fugitives ran as fast as they could to the nearest hall without thinking to ask Izzy if it was a good idea.  
  
"OK, Izzy, now what?" Mimi finally asked when Centarumon was out of sight "Izzy?"  
  
But Izzy was more interested in Centarumon's dot: "Why isn't he following you?"  
  
"He's been playing cat and mouse since we got down here." Joe moaned "Every time he catches up with us, he lets us run again."  
  
"Of COURSE!" Izzy laughed "THAT'S IT!"  
  
"HUH?" Mimi started "What's so funny?"  
  
"That's why Palmon and Gomamon can't digivolve!" Izzy explained "In the previous instances, the digimon only digivolved because their partners were in mortal danger! If Centarumon hasn't actually made any serious attempts on your lives, it must not be enough to trigger the Digivices!"  
  
"WHAT?" Mimi shouted "That's totally STUPID! I don't want it to wait until I'm about to die to kick in!"  
  
"I have to agree." Tentomon concurred "It really doesn't seem that intelligent."  
  
"I concur..." Izzy said, thinking hard "Could it be...Mimi? Joe? Have you been watching your Digivices?"  
  
"Uh, no." Joe answered "We've kinda been busy watching Centarumon."  
  
"Well start watching them." Izzy instructed "I've got an idea."  
  
"I'd better be a good one" Mimi warned.  
  
"What is it?" Palmon asked.  
  
"The next time you encounter Centarumon," Izzy instructed "check the screen in the center of your Digivices."  
  
"Wait a minute!" Mimi complained "You're not going to send us right up to him are you?"  
  
"Of course he won't!" Tentomon insisted "You won't, right?"  
  
"I not going to try, if that's what you mean." Izzy assured them "But given his apparent familiarity with this labyrinth, I wouldn't be surprised if confrontation proves inevitable."  
  
"Oh, that's comforting." Gomamon laughed bitterly.  
  
"Will you stop that, Gomamon?" Palmon complained "You're worse than Matt!"  
  
"There's another fork coming up." Izzy interrupted "Take the right."  
  
"Uh, Izzy?" Tentomon whispered, pointing to Centarumon's dot.  
  
"I see it." Izzy whispered back "I don't think he's close enough to be a danger yet. Besides, I'm trying to guide them out, not simply away from Centarumon."  
  
"Uh, what about now?" Tentomon asked again, nervously.  
  
"Um, Mimi? Joe?" Izzy asked "Now would be a good time to start watching your Digivices."  
  
"That had better not mean what I think it means!" Mimi shouted.  
  
Unfortunately, it meant exactly what she thought. With a deafening blast, Centarumon burst straight through the wall in front of them.  
  
"You're doing better!" Centarumon half complemented, half mocked "But you're going to have to improve much more if you hope to escape this place."  
  
"OH, THANKS A LOT, IZZY!!!" Mimi screamed at their guide as they ran the other direction.  
  
"I'm sorry!" Izzy insisted "WAIT! Don't go that way; take the other hall!"  
  
"NO WAY!" Mimi complained "I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU ANY MORE!"  
  
"Come on, Mimi!" Joe replied "It's not Izzy's fault! Don't yell at him!"  
  
"Well, I'm not as scared of Izzy as I am of Centarumon," Mimi firmly declared "so he's have to do!"  
  
"Oh, Mimi..." Palmon moaned "Lighten up!"  
  
"No way!" Mimi insisted "As soon as we get out of here, I'm pounding your head in Izzy!"  
  
"Not if I get to him first!" Gomamon warned.  
  
"You're not helping, you two." Joe cut in "Right now we just need to...HEY! WHAT'S THAT?"  
  
"What's what?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Yuck!" Palmon shouted "That big hole doesn't match the decor at all!"  
  
"HOLE?" Izzy asked "Is there a hole connecting that hall to the next one?"  
  
"Well," Joe explained "it's connected to something."  
  
"YES!" Izzy exclaimed "Take that hall and go left! That will cut a HUGE amount of time out of this!"  
  
"There, see Izzy?" Mimi replied smugly "I knew what I was doing all along!"  
  
"Oh, sheah. RIGHT." Gomamon sneered.  
  
"Shut up, flipper face." Mimi warned.  
  
************************  
  
So...Some one's been cheating Centarumon thought to himself. Apparently, the four intruders had an accomplice: someone who seemed to know the lay out of the labyrinth. He knew for a fact that no one had been in the labyrinth long enough to form a decent map, much less escaped to tell anyone else about it. This new intruder must be in the map room. But how did he know to repair the map? He and Unimon had disabled the Digi-script-  
  
WHAT?  
  
With a start, Centarumon tried to recall that strange thought once again, but couldn't. It frustrated him to no end when this happened. Far more often than he'd like to admit, these flashes of memories would appear and vanish as soon as he noticed them. They were always the same, from what little of them he could retain. They all seemed to reflect some kind of past that he knew to be false. All ways little details about some existence outside the temple labyrinth. But that wasn't possible! All of his existence had been guarding the passages! He had never been outside at all.  
  
Then how did he know about the map room?  
  
Stop it he told himself There's no time to worry about petty things like this. His task for the moment was totally clear: He had to annihilate the intruders.  
  
There would be no more toying with them. Not if they were receiving help from the outside. Their next meeting would be their last.  
  
************************  
  
"So, did either of you remember to watch your digivices?" Izzy asked once Mimi cooled down.  
  
"Oops." Joe blurted out bashfully "Um, no."  
  
"I assume that you failed to as well, right Mimi?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"Uh...Maybe..." Mimi said embarrassed.  
  
"Well, at least somebody here knows how to follow orders..." Gomamon said smugly.  
  
"YOU did?" Izzy asked incredulously.  
  
"Of course!" Gomamon insisted "You're the only person here who knows what he's talking about, so I'm sure as Hell gonna do what you say right now."  
  
"Wait a minute." Palmon asked, confused "I didn't think Izzy was actually here. I though he was just talking to us through that `phone' thing."  
  
"ANYWAY," Gomamon continued, trying to ignore Palmon "what do you want to know about it?"  
  
"Did anything appear on the screen while you were in close proximity to Centarumon?" Izzy inquired.  
  
"Uh, you mean when he blew through the wall?" Gomamon asked back "Yeah, I guess you do. Yeah, something did show up."  
  
"Well, by all means, share it with us!" Tentomon insisted.  
  
"Did it seem to be some kind of meter rising?" Izzy asked as soon an Tentomon had finished.  
  
"YEAH!" Gomamon confirmed, surprised "It got bigger when he showed up and got smaller when we ran."  
  
"Did the large button on the left begin blinking at any point?" Izzy asked, this time with great anticipation.  
  
"Yeah!" Gomamon confirmed again, getting confused "When the meter got really high; right before we started running. How'd you know that?"  
  
"Never mind that." Izzy instructed "Now, I'm going to do my best to get you all out of that place, but I'm worried that Centarumon may try to attack you again, so listen closely. I believe I know how Gomamon and Palmon can digivolve."  
  
"I thought you said they couldn't because he wasn't trying to kill us." Joe interrupted, confused.  
  
"Well, as you pointed out," Izzy explained, somewhat perturbed at how often we was getting interrupted lately "that made very little sense, as this little episode proves how essential digivolving would seem even in non- fatal situations. I believe that the process is not, in fact, reliant exclusively upon mortal danger, but that the automatic triggering of it in the instances we've witnessed was actually a fail safe."  
  
"WHAT?" Mimi interrupted, totally lost.  
  
"Get to the point Izzy!" Gomamon shouted.  
  
"All right, I'll try again." Izzy sighed "I believe that you can trigger the process yourselves using the digivices. I believe that the meter that appeared was a part of the mechanism that detects danger. When it becomes high enough to trigger digivolution, I assume that the large button begins to blink as a warning. Hopefully, pressing that button when it's blinking will cause the process to begin. The times Agumon, Gabumon, and Biyomon digivolved was, I assume, the result of the digivices being designed to work automatically, should the danger level become too high."  
  
"Uh, sure. OK." Joe replied, figuring that Izzy must have known what he was talking about to use such complicated terms.  
  
"Hopefully, you won't have to test this any time soon." Izzy added, not wanting Mimi on his case again "But I figured that you should know, just in case."  
  
"And we appreciate the though, Izzy." Joe said "ISN'T THAT RIGHT MIMI?"  
  
"Yeah...Whatever." Mimi shrugged, not wanting to appear fickle in her grudges.  
  
"Oh, as long as we're on the subject," Izzy remembered "you haven't seen a gear or disk of some sort protruding out of Centarumon's body, have you?"  
  
"You mean like what Matt said he saw in that big snake thing?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Exactly." Izzy confirmed.  
  
"I'm not sure." Joe answered "I don't really recall anything like that. But there's all kinds of stuff stuck into Centarumon, so I might have just missed it."  
  
"Well, if you encounter him again," Izzy directed "you should look for one. Hopefully, if such a gear is present, it can be exploited in the same manner as Seadramon's was!"  
  
"IF we encounter him again." Joe pointed out "No offense, but I don't think any of us feel like testing out any more hypothesizes today."  
  
"Nor do I." Izzy concurred.  
  
"Now you remember that." Mimi cut in.  
  
"Give it up, Mimi." Gomamon sighed.  
  
************************  
  
The Temple gates didn't seem as impressive as Leomon had, for some reason, expected them to be. He wasn't sure how he could have formed any opinions of the gates previously at all; seeing as he had never been there before that moment. In fact, he'd never left Infinity Mountain before. This was the first time Devimon had dispatched him anywhere; which was, of course, why he had to do a good job. There was no way he was going to inaugurate his first venture into the outside world by failing.  
  
************************  
  
"Aren't we there yet, Izzy?" Mimi whined, for only God knew what time.  
  
"I already told you!" Izzy sighed, exasperated "You should only be five to ten minutes away!"  
  
"And remember it this time!" Tentomon added.  
  
"Anyway," Izzy continued "there's another crossroads ahead. Just stay straight and..."  
  
"AND?" Mimi angrily inquired.  
  
"I'd suggest that you try to move quickly. " Izzy warned cautiously "Centarumon seems to be up to something."  
  
"HUH?" Mimi stupidly asked, almost stopping "What's going on?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Izzy confessed "He's taking a different route that puts several halls between him and you; none of which seem to connect."  
  
"Isn't that good?" Palmon asked.  
  
"You would think so," Izzy explained "but Centarumon has been quite consistent until now. I don't see why he would be putting more distance between himself and you."  
  
"Maybe he's giving up?" Gomamon suggested hopefully.  
  
"Why?" Izzy asked.  
  
"I guess you've got a point..." Gomamon gloomily agreed.  
  
"So, anyway," Joe asked "what exactly is he doing? Pulling back?"  
  
"The opposite, in fact." Izzy answered "This new path he's on dead ends not incredibly far from the exit but fails to connect with it. Still, he's making...OH NO!!!"  
  
"WHAT?" all four of the adventurers shouted at once.  
  
"He just crossed one of the paths!" Izzy shouted "He's going to try and cut you off!"  
  
"Wha-How long before he gets to our hall?" Joe shouted, nervously.  
  
"...Now" Izzy gulped.  
  
"...Oh darn..." Joe muttered, gulping as well. Right on cue, Centarumon exploded out of the wall slightly in front of them and approached, slowly this time.  
  
"You've performed with remarkable bravery for opponents so overmatched." Centarumon grimly congratulated "It is quite a tragedy that you didn't have a sense of honor to match it."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Gomamon demanded, trying to sound tough.  
  
"Do you take me for a fool?" Centarumon growled "Don't insult my intelligence. I refer to your receiving help from your friend in the map room."  
  
"Oh, that..." Gomamon nervously laughed "Well, you see-"  
  
"SILENCE!" Centarumon bellowed "You have proved yourselves to be without honor! Thus, I will no longer show you the mercy you have received so far."  
  
"OH, THANKS A LOT IZZY!" Mimi screamed into the phone.  
  
"Your accomplice will be dealt with latter." Centarumon explained "You, however, will not be so lucky."  
  
"What are you waiting for?" Izzy shouted "DIGIVOLVE!"  
  
"I bid you farewell." Centarumon coldly said raising his arm and allowing a large, cannon like device to cut out of his hand "SOLAR RAY!"  
  
In a moment, the entire hallway was enveloped by a blinding light, accompanied by a sudden flash of intense heat. When Mimi and Joe, who and instinctually fell to the floor at the first sign of the attack, finally got around to opening their eyes, they found their entire section of the hall blackened by the blast. But that was hardly the focus of their attention.  
  
It was the two giant digimon who had appeared between them and Centarumon that was.  
  
Directly in front of Mimi stood a creature that, it seemed, was some sort of humanoid cactus. The towering digimon was covered with huge needles from head to toe. That is, if it had a head. As it was, there was only a crude representation of a smillie face carved in what seemed to be the front. In sharp contrast to the almost totally plant-like appearance of the creature, it's "hands" seemed to be two huge boxing gloves. The result was as comical as it was imposing.  
  
Standing before Joe was an even larger digimon: a bulky, shaggy furred walrus befitted with two imposing tusks and an even more imposing horn protruding from it's forehead. It and the large cactus took up so much of the hallway in front of the two humans, it was obvious that they had absorbed Centarumon's attack. In fact, Centarumon could no longer be seen from behind the bulky Digimon. However, he could certainly be heard.  
  
"WHAT IN ALL HELLS?" he bellowed, thoroughly in shock.  
  
"Wha-Wha-What's going on?" Mimi whimpered, cowering in fear.  
  
"Hey, it's just us!" the cactus laughed in a gruff, yet unmistakably feminine voice.  
  
"What's the matter?" The walrus guffawed without turning around "Don't you recognize your old pal Gomamon?"  
  
"Wha...You digivolved?" Joe babbled.  
  
"You bet! The name's Ikkakumon!" the hairy digimon replied.  
  
"And I'm Togemon!" added the cactus "Nice `ta see ya again!"  
  
"Impressive! Most impressive!" Centarumon mussed "Digivolving is quite a trick, I wouldn't have thought that you could pull it off. However, that alone isn't enough to save you."  
  
"Oh, quit your bellyaching and fight!" Togemon interrupted.  
  
"Well, what do we have here?" Ikkakumon guffawed again.  
  
"I beg your pardon?" Centarumon asked, bewildered.  
  
"On the right." Ikkakumon whispered (well, as close to a whisper as he could muster) to Togemon "Under the arm."  
  
"Somebody tell Izzy we found his gear." Togemon whispered to Mimi.  
  
"You got it." Mimi said, whipping the cell phone back out again  
  
"Izzy?...IZZY?...HELLO?"  
  
"What's the matter?" Joe asked, apprehensively.  
  
"How should I know?" Mimi shot back, starting to panic "IZZY ANSWER ME!!!"  
  
"Mimi? I think we should get out of here!" Joe said, nervously.  
  
"IZZY, I SWEAR I WILL BEAT YOU HEAD IN WITH MY BEAR HANDS IF YOU DON'T ANSWER THIS PHONE!" Mimi shrieked into the phone.  
  
"Mimi? Joe?" Togemon interrupted "Run. NOW." The words had barley escaped her mouth when a second blast of light erupted from the other side of the barrier the two digimon formed, knocking them both backwards several feet.  
  
"HEY!" Mimi shouted "Watch where you're stepping!"  
  
"I think it's time we did some stepping of our own!" Joe yelled, grabbing Mimi and taking of in the opposed direction.  
  
"But...But..Will they be OK?" Mimi mumbled worriedly as the sounds of combat began to echo through the labyrinth.  
  
"I hope so." Joe said, not looking back.  
  
It was a good thing he didn't, as he would no doubt have been quite discouraged at what he would have seen. Ikkakumon attempted to blast Centarumon with his attack "harpoon torpedo", but the attack didn't seem to have been intended for close combat and missed by a mile. It did, however, succeed in temporarily blinding Togemon, who wound up taking the brunt of another "solar ray".  
  
"OH, THANKS A BUNCH, SNAGGLETOOTH!" Togemon shouted at her alleged comrade.  
  
"Hey! I'm new at this!" Ikkakumon apologized (sort of), making a close to a chair at Centarumon as his massive bulk would allow. Sadly, it wasn't anywhere near close enough: Centarumon was behind him in a second. Needless to say, the result was far from pleasant for poor Ikkakumon.  
  
"Pick on somebody your own weight, horse-boy! NEEDLE SPRAY!!!" Togemon shouted, unleashing a hail of razor sharp needles upon Centarumon; with little effect.  
  
"Tour's going to have to do much better than that!" Centarumon mocked, tossing Togemon over his head and into Ikkakumon's with only one hand.  
  
"OW! You hurt!" Ikkakumon howled "You should have a `falling down' attack, it'd be pretty effective!"  
  
"Shut up..." Togemon moaned, stumbling up again "He's got us out gunned ten- to-one."  
  
"Yeah, I kind of noticed that." Ikkakumon grunted "If we can't out-fight him, we've only got a chance if we knock out that gear."  
  
"We can't knock any part of him!" Togemon pointed out "He's too fast!"  
  
"It's not hard to avoid attacks you can see coming from a mile away!" Centarumon laughed, knocking Togemon back to the floor again.  
  
"I'm getting real sick of you!" Ikkakumon bellowed, charging straight into Centarumon, only to be flipped over him into the ceiling and held there.  
  
"Don't worry, soon there will be a greater distance between the two of us than you could possibly imagine!" Centarumon coldly snickered, readying another solar ray.  
  
"Perhaps, but it'll be you who leaves!" a new voice hissed from behind the three combatants. Before Centarumon had a chance to look for the speaker, he was enveloped in a sudden cloud of electricity. Centarumon lurched back, more in surprise than pain, and dropped Ikkakumon to the floor. When he looked up, he found himself at the feet of a tall, black, lanky insect digimon.  
  
"Sorry I'm late." the big bug hissed again "Are you two all right?"  
  
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Ikkakumon grunted, regaining his footing (er... if he had feet, that is).  
  
"His name is Kabuterimon." a familiar voice rang from behind the new arrival  
  
"He's the digivolved form of Tentomon."  
  
"Izzy? Is that you?" Togemon asked, working on getting herself up again.  
  
"Good." Centarumon grunted, charging at Kabuterimon "I was hoping that I wouldn't have to leave to find you two."  
  
"WATCH OUT!" Ikkakumon shouted "HE'S EVEN STRONGER THAN HE LOOKS!"  
  
"Not that bright, though." Kabuterimon laughed jumping to the ceiling "COME AND GET ME!"  
  
"Gladly." Centarumon replied, whipping the cannon out of his hand and aiming at Kabuterimon.  
  
"IKKAKUMON! TOGEMON! WAKE UP!" Kabuterimon shouted to the other two digimon. It took longer that it should have (they were a bit punch drunk, after all), but the two finally realized that, in aiming at Kabuterimon, Centarumon had exposed the gear in his side.  
  
"I GOT IT! LIGHTNING PUNCHES!!!" Togemon shouted, landing a blinding flash of jabs into Centarumon's side. In an instant, he had collapsed on the floor, though his painful contortions kept Togemon from getting very close.  
  
"Nice, if not prompt." Kabuterimon congratulated, coming down from the ceiling.  
  
"Hey, you could have explained things better." Togemon pointed out.  
  
"Centarumon would have overheard." Izzy pointed out, keeping his distance from Centarumon "Speaking of whom, someone had better remove that gear before he recovers."  
  
"Happy to oblige!" Ikkakumon bellowed, hobbling up next to Centarumon "Stand back everyone! University of the BIG OL' EXPLOSION, MEET THE PROFESSOR!!!" in a moment, that entire portion of the hall was filled with the derbies of a rapid chain of harpoon torpedoes.  
  
"HEY!" Togemon coughed "Hid him, not us!"  
  
"I don't know what you fools are doing, but I intend to put a stop to it immediately!" Centarumon shouted, trying to sound as imposing as he had before, not really succeeding.  
  
"Oh, shut up!" Kabuterimon hissed, fishing Centarumon out of the dust and getting a death hold on him "OK TOGEMON, DO YOUR THING!"  
  
"You got it bug boy!" Togemon agreed, punching ferociously at the gear, getting kicked in the head several times but not letting up. Suddenly, somewhat before Togemon realized it, the gear shattered and disappeared.  
  
************************  
  
It had taken far longer than Andromon had intended, but the eight intruders had finally been pinned up in an area where he could keep an eye on them. There really wasn't much of a reason to guard them, none of them were in any condition to escape. In fact, Andromon could probably have left them to find the other six, but the eight pests below him had already proven to be such pests, he wasn't about to allow them to run about unsupervised. Of course, that was exactly what he was allowing the others to do. If the two in the power center had discovered how to disrupt the flow of power through out the facility, the could reek unimaginable damage; and the very thought of the other four being in close proximity of the guardian of the dungeon greatly disturbed him. He wasn't sure why, but it for some reason did. All in all, he was becoming more and more impatient as every second passed. He couldn't remain up on his perch baby-sitting much longer. His reinforcements couldn't arrive soon enough.  
  
************************  
  
"What's he doing?" Sora whispered to herself, watching the faint outline of Andromon perched on the top on one of the walls that fenced them in. It had been several minutes since they had unintentionally run into the dead end where they were now, but Andromon hadn't even tried to come in and attack them. The only time he'd shown any aggression at all was when Tai tried to make a dash for the passage that brought them into their little alcove. Even then, he's simply scared Tai off, not wounding him any. Matt guessed that Andromon had been trying to force them into the dead end for the whole ordeal, but he couldn't figure out what, if anything, he planed to do with them now that he'd fenced them in.  
  
"Sora?" Biyomon weakly asked "Are you scared?"  
  
"Yeah." Sora whispered back "How about you?"  
  
"No." Biyomon lied, timidly.  
  
"Oh, of course." Sora played along "You're just shaking like that because you're so tired."  
  
"Yeah, exactly." Biyomon quietly agreed "I'm not worried."  
  
"I never thought you were." Sora lied, patting Biyomon on the head. It was unbelievable to her how seriously these digimon took their self-imposed duties. Their entire world seemed to revolve around their human "partners". That kind of devotion was totally alien to Sora.  
  
It didn't used to be Sora recalled bitterly but time sure change, don't they?  
  
Suddenly, Sora's train of thought was abruptly derailed by Tai's obnoxious snoring.  
  
"How can that idiot sleep at a time like this?" Matt sighed, shaking his head.  
  
"Well, it's not like we've got anything else to do." Gabumon pointed out "A quick nap would probably do us all some good."  
  
"I'm not shutting an eye until I've got plenty of distance between me and this hell hole." Matt firmly declared.  
  
"It's way too scary in here to sleep anyway." T.K. agreed.  
  
"And too noisy!" Patamon added.  
  
"You mean the machinery or Tai?" Gabumon joked.  
  
"HAHAHA...Good one!" T.K. giggled.  
  
"Well, it seemed like something Gomamon would have said, so..." Gabumon trailed off "What do you think happened to them?"  
  
"Hopefully, they got as far away from here as they can." Matt answered.  
  
"And then they could go get help and come get us!" T.K. piped up enthusiastically. Matt started to say that, if they knew what was good for them, they should forget the ever knew the rest of the group and make trails, but he caught his tongue and simply nodded.  
  
************************  
  
"Where are the rest of them?" a sickly, yet powerful voice snaked up behind Andromon. Caught totally by surprise, something that happened to him very rarely, Andromon whirled around and found himself face to face with a new digimon. His analyzers recognized the new face as Leomon, but he deviated from the established appearance of the type in several respects, most notable being a drastically different fur tint. All these deviations were quickly explained when a quick scan revealed the presence of an unusually large black gear in the digimon's system. The standard black gear was known to cause subtle changes in the host's physiology, thus, a gear of increased size would, of course, trigger more drastic deviations. Andromon's scans, while thorough, proved quite tedious, lasting a full 2.35 seconds. In this time, Leomon seemed to have become impatient.  
  
"What have you done with the other six insects?" he hissed, angrily.  
  
"Contact with targets in questions lost in pursuit of present targets." Andromon explained curtly, sparring the more detailed report for later.  
  
"`Lost'?" Leomon angrily repeated, an annoying habit exhibited by many digimon.  
  
"Tentomon and unidentified target four last recorded in power core area. Current location unknown. Gomamon, Palmon and unidentified targets three and six last seen entering lower levels. Pursuit not authorized. Current location unconfirmed."  
  
"FOOL! You should have followed them!" Leomon snarled. These fools were so pathetic in their stupidity. Devimon wanted loyalty, but not blind idiot loyalty. "Next time, do what Lord Devimon wants, not what he says."  
  
"...Understood." Andromon replied, not understanding at all.  
  
"Anyway, your orders to avoid the labyrinth have been temporarily withdrawn until the creatures have been destroyed."  
  
"Inquiry:" Andromon interrupted "Why did they stand earlier?"  
  
"What does it mean to you?" Leomon asked cautiously.  
  
"A thorough understanding of the reasoning behind the order will serve to better prepare for any incursions into the area."  
  
"Very well." Leomon sighed "The digimon residing in the labyrinth is of remarkable physical prowess, and the black gear implanted in him has only a partial control over him. Because of the precarious nature of the gears effects on him, contact with him has been prohibited to prevent it being further compromise."  
  
"How?" Andromon asked, having never heard of a black gear having only partial control over it's host.  
  
"You question Lord Devimon's decision?" Leomon asked, threateningly.  
  
"Only that I may understand it." Andromon answered.  
  
"You need only fulfill his wishes, not understand them." Leomon admonished "Now, we have a more pressing matter to attend to."  
  
"What of the eight already present?" Andromon inquired.  
  
"Your research on them is complete. They are no longer of any use to Lord Devimon." Leomon replied, making his was to the gate to the labyrinth. It was obvious what he meant.  
  
Andromon prepared to element the pests once and for all.  
  
Before he had begun, however, a sudden commotion behind him demanded his attention. Looking back, Andromon found, to his complete astonishment, three champion level digimon rushing towards him, all of whom could easily have digivolved from the three missing rookies. But they were the least of his worries.  
  
Centarumon was with them.  
  
************************  
  
"They must be down in that alcove!" Centarumon shouted to his companions "You get down there and bring them out! I'll take care of that mechanical menace!"  
  
"Understood!" Izzy, ridding on Kabuterimon's back, shouted over the roar of his beating wings.  
  
"I'm sorry, but I'm having trouble adjusting to having this guy as a friend." Mimi said to Joe, both of whom were ridding on Ikkakumon (Mimi wasn't comfortable with the thought of being held by a cactus).  
  
"Well, you have to admit," Izzy pointed out "It's much better to have him as a friend than an enemy."  
  
"He does seem to know his way around this place better than any of us." Joe added.  
  
"Yeah, mister navigator!" Mimi shouted at Izzy "And I'm sure he knows how to answer the phone when someone's screaming at them to answer!"  
  
"I told you!" Izzy replied, for what must have been the fiftieth time "I had to shut down my computer when we came to help you!"  
  
"Well that's no excuse!" Mimi insisted "I'm still going to beat your head in when we get out of here!"  
  
"We've got other people's heads to beat in first!" Ikkakumon interrupted.  
  
"Yeah, let's knock that tin can silly!" Togemon agreed.  
  
"First, let's get some reinforcements." Kabuterimon said streaking for the alcove.  
  
To say that the rest of the group was "surprised" to see their friends would be like saying that the surface of the sun is "warm". If any of them had any intelligent thoughts they were trying to communicate in the sudden volley of exuberant shouts, it didn't get expressed very well.  
  
"Where have you been?" Matt finally asked.  
  
"No place you'd want to go." Mimi assured him.  
  
"We can catch up latter. Right now, we have something much more important to take care of!" Izzy shouted over the commotion "Quickly, take out your digivices!"  
  
"We already tried to digivolve, if that's what you mean." Gabumon answered "It didn't work."  
  
"Well, I think we can assist you." Izzy assured him "Are the large buttons flashing of your digivices?" when everyone nodded, Izzy continued "Press that button and you should trigger the digivolution process."  
  
"It'll take up a lot of space quick," Kabuterimon added "so make room."  
  
In a moment, the entire alcove was enveloped in a succession of blinding flashes. One by one, freshly digivolved digimon began to emerge and started searching for Andromon to gain some well deserved revenge.  
  
Well, all but Patamon.  
  
He might have digivolved and gone with them, but T.K. never pressed the button. Instead, he simply held the digivice with slightly trembling hands.  
  
"Do you want to digivolve?" he asked Patamon.  
  
"I want to protect you." Patamon timidly replied, avoiding T.K.'s actual question.  
  
"But do you want to digivolve?" T.K. pressed.  
  
"Not really..." Patamon confessed "It looks scary."  
  
"Yeah." T.K. agreed "And I like you the way you are. I don't think I want you to be one of those big things."  
  
"Well, you know," Patamon gulped, trying to sound courageous "all the others have changed back to the way they used to be afterwards, so maybe-"  
  
"But what if you get hurt?" T.K. interrupted "Andromon's all big and scary! You could get really hurt!"  
  
"Well..." Patamon stuttered, trying not to show how badly he feared that very thing.  
  
"I don't want you to!" T.K. insisted "I don't want you to get hurt!"  
  
"Oh...OK." Patamon agreed, glad that he didn't have to fight, but worried about something else "What if the others think I didn't want to protect you?"  
  
"Don't worry!" T.K. assured him "I'll just tell everyone that I wouldn't let you go!"  
  
In the meantime, the digimon who had gone off to battle Andromon found themselves feeling rather useless, as Centarumon obviously had things more than under control. The new arrivals ended up forming little more than a rooting section.  
  
"YES! BEAT THAT BUCKET O' BOLTS SILLY!!!" Greymon shouted.  
  
"THAT'S IT! YOU GOT HIM WHERE YOU WANT HIM!!!" Togemon added.  
  
"WATCH YOUR LEFT!...Oh, you wanted him to do that...OK, CARRY ON!" Kabuterimon called from directly behind.  
  
"Get back here, you!" Birdramon grunted, grabbing the giant insect and yanking him back to where she had been.  
  
"Just trying to get a good view!" Kabuterimon insisted.  
  
"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTING HIM! DON'T GIVE HIM POINTERS!" Garurumon howled, quite annoyed at the absurd "coaching" that Centarumon was providing his opponent.  
  
"No no NO! Don't put all your weight into the punch! A quick kick in the knee and you're eating floor!...See?...AND DON'T GET UP SO SLOWLY!!!"  
  
"YOU CAN TEACH HIM ALL YOU WANT LATER!" Ikkakumon insisted "JUST WHACK THAT GEAR ON HIM FIRST!!!"  
  
"All right, I suppose that failure is the best teaching tool." Centarumon sighed "This is what happens when you don't guard your weak spots!" With that, he delivered a savage jab into Andromon's stomach, where a gear similar to the one that had been in him was located. In a moment, Andromon collapsed in a heap onto the floor.  
  
************************  
  
Leomon watched the entire episode with great displeasure from the rim of the factory. He could have gone down and assisted Andromon, but had decided against it. Centarumon was too powerful for him to at ease in the first place. Even together, it would have been a close battle. And then there were the six other digimon. Even together, they weren't anywhere near as powerful as Centarumon, yet Leomon would certainly have been significantly weakened in battling the afore mentioned digimon; he might not have been able to defeat them.  
  
Instead, he would return to Infinity Mountain. Even though Andromon had been defeated, he had fulfilled him primary purpose: Devimon now had enough information on the strange creatures to form a more direct assault on them.  
  
One that wouldn't fail like this pitiful escapade.  
  
************************  
  
With no one trying to kill them anymore, the group of exasperated travelers finally found themselves getting what they had been seeking all along:  
  
Answers  
  
"All my life, I've been waiting for this moment." Centarumon sighed, quite overwhelmed "This is...I...Wow..."  
  
"I appreciate the show of admiration," Izzy replied, a bit embarrassed "but I'm not sure it's warranted."  
  
"There's nothing else that's suitable for the Digidestined." Centarumon firmly stated.  
  
"The who?" Tai asked.  
  
"You don't mean us, do you?" Gabumon continued.  
  
"Do you know what he's talking about?" Matt asked.  
  
"There's not a digimon in existence who doesn't!" Centarumon laughed "You're only the saviors of this world!"  
  
"Heh heh...Yeah, sure. Right." Tai laughed "You've been down in that maze for a while, haven't you?"  
  
"Don't you question my intelligence on this matter." Centarumon replied "I am completely serious."  
  
"But how could we be the digidestined?" Biyomon asked, sharing Tai's sentiment "I don't know about Sora and the others, but there's nothing that special about us digimon!"  
  
"And I don't think there's anything too remarkable about us either." Sora added, taking a glance at her fellow humans.  
  
"I'm not sure I understand what's going on." Izzy interrupted "What exactly is a `Digidestined'?"  
  
"I believe I already said that." Centarumon responded.  
  
"Well, could you please explain it to greater detail?" Tentomon requested "After all, they're new here."  
  
"Very well." Centarumon sighed "For longer than anyone in this world can remember, stories have been told of a group of beings from another world who, in times of darkness, would journey into this world and bring peace. It is said that these beings would each be accompanied by a digimon guardian and that they would posses devices that can cause the digimon to digivolve. Sound familiar?"  
  
"Hmmm..." Izzy mussed "The similarities to our predicament certainly remarkable."  
  
"So where did you get all this?" Matt asked.  
  
"They came from writings collected over the centuries." Centarumon explained  
  
"Most of them were recorded by myself and my ... 'associate' Unimon."  
  
Centarumon had to pause for a moment to attempt to find a word that adequately defined his relationship with Unimon. In the end, "associate" was nowhere near enough. But that was beside the point.  
  
"They were collected in the gates you passed through to enter this place." Centarumon continued.  
  
"The ones we found destroyed?" Izzy asked.  
  
"Yes, though these writing only made up a portion of the scrolls that were housed in the gates." Centarumon confirmed "They were also fighting techniques, maps, all kind of information."  
  
"So who would have wanted to destroy them?" Izzy continued.  
  
"No one." Centarumon explained "Most digimon would have given anything to know what they contained. Therefore, I believe that they were destroyed by someone who already knew them."  
  
"Unimon?" Izzy offered.  
  
"No, he was infected by a black gear even before me." Centarumon answered "I believe the deed was done by Leomon."  
  
"WHAT?" all the digimon cried in unison, totally shocked.  
  
"Why would he do that?" Tentomon demanded.  
  
"I believe your other friend can tell you the answer." Centarumon sighed, pointing to Andromon who had been keeping to himself on the far end of the room "Tell them who was sent by Devimon just before our battle."  
  
"The reinforcements Devimon supplied was Leomon." Andromon stated plainly.  
  
"Wha-wha-WHAT?" Tentomon stuttered, voicing all the digimon's sentiments.  
  
"Leomon was our student." Centarumon said mournfully "He had a remarkable hunger for knowledge, but I'm afraid he was also rather rash. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he attempted to destroy Devimon on his own or something of that manner."  
  
"Apparently, that didn't pan out too well." Matt said.  
  
"I'm afraid not." Centarumon agreed "You are the only ones who posses a power great enough to destroy Devimon. Despite his lack of clear decision making, he was far from stupid and probably destroyed the scrolls to insure that no one attempted to steal them should he no longer be able to guard them."  
  
"Wait a minute; back up." Joe interrupted "What was that part about `us defeating Devimon'?"  
  
"I believe that was self explanatory." Centarumon replied "you have been brought here to destroy the tyrant who holds this island in bondage."  
  
"Uh, OK. See, I've got a little problem with that." Joe stammered "For one thing, we couldn't even handle Andromon without help. How are we supposed to beat up somebody who this Leomon couldn't even handle?"  
  
"You are only beginning to learn of the power you posses." Centarumon assured him "In time, you will see how strong you truly are."  
  
"I think I've got a pretty good idea how strong I am." Joe shot back.  
  
"You are only as strong as you think you are." Centarumon replied, sagely.  
  
"Oh no. This isn't going to turn into one of those `believe in the power inside you' things is it?" Tai sighed "I hate that crap."  
  
"I still have questions." Izzy interrupted.  
  
"Oh, there's a surprise." Mimi joked.  
  
"I believe I have a relatively good grasp on how to use the digivice, but I'm still confused about Digivolution it's self." Izzy continued, ignoring Mimi  
  
"Namely, why do the digimon seem to hold the form they are in at the moment, but they only hold their larger forms for a short time."  
  
"Digivolving is normally brought on by a combination of numerous conditions within a digimon." Andromon explained "It is normally a rare event that only occurs once or twice in a digimon's life span relying mostly on physical condition combined with mental and combat experience and is usually permanent. I would presume that the digivolution triggered by the digivice operates on a different principal than the digimon's statistics and, as such, would yield different results."  
  
"I see..." Izzy mumbled, thinking hard "Perhaps they produce a blast of energy that mimics those conditions. Because it's brought on by an outside source, it would seem logical that the effect would only be temporary; leaving the digimon to revert to it's previous form as it's current... statistics, was it? Well, they wouldn't be high enough to hold the larger one on it's own."  
  
"Remarkable!" Centarumon mused, thoroughly impressed "That's more than most digimon could be able to figure out in their life!"  
  
"Well, that's Izzy for you!" Tentomon proudly exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah!" T.K. gleefully answered "He's a genius!"  
  
"A genius who we owe, right?" Palmon whispered to Mimi, nudging her with her elbow (well, if she had had one). Mimi simply fidgeted uncomfortably without saying anything.  
  
"One more question." Izzy continued, ignoring the compliments "I understand that these `black gears' are tools of Devimon's to control other digimon, so why did he not begin using you the way he used Andromon and is now using Leomon?"  
  
"My mental disciplining is far above that of either of them." Centarumon explained "I was able to partially fight it's effects. I couldn't reverse it's memory erasure or emotional agitation, but I was successful in preventing Devimon's direct influence and concealed myself in the depths of the temple. Devimon didn't want to risk causing a lose cannon like me interfering with his plans, so he just let me be."  
  
"Excuse me." Matt interrupted "You mean this whole place is a temple?"  
  
"That is correct." Centarumon nodded "Everything within the golden barrier is a temple erected by those who created the digivices you hold."  
  
"Who was that exactly?" Izzy asked, trying to conceal his excitement over what the answer might be.  
  
"I'm sorry to disappoint you." Centarumon confessed, seeing how badly Izzy sought an answer "But I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that. The effects of the black gear has somewhat clouded my memory of times that far past."  
  
"I see..." Izzy sighed, dejected.  
  
************************  
  
Andromon waved good-bye from behind as the Digidestined left with Centarumon. They tried to talk him into leaving with them, but he insisted that he needed to stay and repair the damage to the machinery that had been done that day. So they left without him into the eerie Digiworld night.  
  
"Man..." Tai said to no one in particular, gazing at the murky kaleidoscope above them "I never thought I'd miss that sky."  
  
"I'll still take blue any day." Matt replied.  
  
"Amen" Joe concurred.  
  
"Actually, I suppose there is some good thing to be said about this sky." Izzy pointed out "Seeing that there's no sun, we don't have to worry about sunburn."  
  
"That sounds really nasty!" Patamon piped up "Getting burned and sick just for being outside! YUCK!"  
  
"Say, Izzy." Mimi said, walking up beside him "I need to give you something."  
  
"Uh, oh..." Izzy gulped, vividly recalling Mimi's threats from earlier.  
  
"Here you go!" Mimi said, bending over some and planting a quick kiss on Izzy's cheek "I think you earned that."  
  
"Wow..." Tai whistled from behind "Whatever you did, teach me to do it!"  
  
Instead of replying, Izzy just cradled the cheek gingerly with a spaced out look on his face.  
  
"Earth to Izzy, come in!" Tai joked, waving his hand in front of Izzy's face.  
  
"Leave him alone, Tai." Matt insisted "You want me to tell Izzy about how well you handled Mimi's affections?"  
  
"HEY!" Tai shouted, embarrassed "Don't make me hurt you!"  
  
"Speaking of which," Mimi said to Sora "You never explained what happened to him at soccer camp!"  
  
"SORA!" Tai warned "If want to see your next birthday, you'll think carefully before saying anything!"  
  
"Relax, Tai!" Sora laughed "I'm not telling!"  
  
"I'll give you ten dollars." Mimi whispered to Sora "Twenty! How about twenty?"  
  
"Sorry, Mimi." Sora giggled "I'm not telling."  
  
"You want a new blouse?" Mimi continued "Heck, how about a whole new outfit!"  
  
"Nope!" Sora sighed "Not gonna do it!"  
  
"You want my watch?"  
  
"NO."  
  
"OH, COME ON!!! I WANNA KNOW!!!...Aww man, this is gonna bug me all night..."  
  
To Be Continued... 


	8. Angels, Devils, and Digidestined, OH MY!

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter eight  
  
You say hop and I'll hop  
  
You say stop and I'll stop  
  
You say come and I'll come  
  
Anything you say  
  
I'm like a hunk of clay  
  
I'm just like putty  
  
Putty in your hands, uh huh  
  
With one wave of your hand  
  
I'm your slave to command  
  
But I'm glad, it's OK  
  
Anything you say  
  
I'm like a hunk of clay  
  
I'm just like putty  
  
Putty in your hands, uh huh  
  
You can stretch me until I'm ten feet tall  
  
Or cut me down to the size of a rubber ball  
  
You can use me, abuse me, but never refuse me  
  
Without your love, I ain't a-nothin' at all  
  
Well, they all think I'm a fool  
  
`Cause you treat me so cruel  
  
But I'll go on this way  
  
Anything you say  
  
I'm like a hunk of clay  
  
I'm just like putty  
  
Putty in your hands, uh huh  
  
You can stretch me until I'm ten feet tall  
  
Or cut me down to the size of a rubber ball  
  
You can use me, abuse me, but never refuse me  
  
Without your love, I ain't a-nothin' at all  
  
Well, they all think I'm a fool  
  
`Cause you treat me so cruel  
  
But I'll go on this way  
  
Anything you say  
  
I'm like a hunk of clay  
  
I'm just like putty  
  
Putty in your hands, uh huh  
  
"Putty (in your hands)'  
  
by K. Rodgers and J. Patton  
  
from the album "The Yardbirds Greatest Hits Vol. One" by The Yardbirds(gee, really?)  
  
Chapter eight:  
  
Angels and Devils and Digidestined. OH MY!  
  
The many caverns of Infinity Mountain had quite a hellish reputation through out File Island. It was hardly a suprise that the Digimon who lived within them were feared, but those on the outside feared even the caves themselves. The mountain's very name came from the idea that some of the caverns spiraled downward for eternity. The atmosphere was quite infamous as well. It was often said that the darkness that filled the nighttime sky slept there in the day and that anyone who ventured into it while it slept would be driven mad. While quite morbid, it was perfectly understandable. Few Digimon ever ventured into Infinity Mountain and simple minds often feared the unfamiliar.  
  
Of course, Pandoramon was quite familiar with it, so there was nothing for her to fear.  
  
The all encompassing darkness was quite peaceful if you asked her. There was nothing at all to interrupt one's thoughts once inside it. It was a shame most of the armies amassed within Infinity Mountain were in no mental condition to enjoy the serenity, but then, there wasn't any other way to get them inside, was there? They were all far too wrapped up in folklore and simple minded idiocy to align with Devimon willingly. Fortunately, Pandoramon was much more open minded than most of File Island.  
  
She could still remember when she first heard Devimon tell her about the Darkness, about the rejuvenation that it brought, about the rebirth that the entire Digiworld could experience if it was freed from the confines Myotismon was attempting to place upon it. Oh, she had heard plenty of unflattering things about Devimon before and she certainly heard plenty more once it became known that she was meeting with him. From the first day, she was flooded with opposition from virtually everyone she knew, all still steeped in their folklore. But Devimon won out easily. His simple, unorthodox logic never failed to fascinate her. "It is a simple fact that Darkness is more primary than light." he'd said once "Lock yourself in a room, blocking out all outside influence, and what do you find? Darkness. Only when you bring light in from the outside does it vanish, but it's always there, always returning when the outside influence is gone. It is the constant, not light." That was not all Devimon had told her "When is it that we sleep?" he'd asked one particularly memorable evening "We sleep at night, of course! That is when we rest, when eveything is calm. So imagine if there was a night spread all across this world. Not simply a absence of luminescence, but a kind of night that could penetrate straight through everything: a night that could cause every particle to sleep. Imagine the rest that everything would receive, never having to wake up!"  
  
Eventually, Pandoramon had had enough of simply being a guest who happened to be around to hear the pearls of Devimon's wisdom. Of course, once she aligned herself with him wholly, she was no longer welcome anywhere amongst the blind fools of File Island. It was then that Devimon took her to Infinity Mountain.  
  
She certainly didn't seem to fit among the dark, imposing cavern at first, and she DEFINITELY didn't seem to fit along side Devimon. Her small, fragile frame couldn't have contrasted more against Devimon's phantasmagoric body: For the most part, she looked like a young human, roughly thirteen. Her short, dark, messy hair surrounded a delicate face that seemed to portray a since of constant worry. Her large, soft eyes were dominated by eery white pupils that neatly matched her ghostly pale complexion. Unlike most Digimon her level, there was very little about her that lent it's self to combat outside of a simple, thin staff that virtually a part of her body. Far more eye catching were the two limp wings that branched from her back and hung at her side. They were far too weak to ever bring her flight or even raise themselves fully, but rather dragged along the ground behind her like a bird with both wings broken. The overall impression was terribly sad looking, but Pandoramon hardly cared for her appearance. She had far more important things to worry about.  
  
Because of File Island's distance for the rift where The Darkness was attempting to enter the Digital World, even the great Devimon couldn't communicate with it any more; and Myotismon wouldn't allow him to approach it. It had become necessary to find a new way to communicate with The Darkness. That was Pandoramon's purpose in Infinity Mountain. She had constructed the giant device that could connect Devimon's mind directly to the consciouses that was The Darkness just as it was when he approached it in person. However, there was an important difference. The manner in which Devimon communicated with The Darkness was something that only another Devimon could comprehend, something that was imbedded deep within his being that Pandoramon was unable to decipher scientifically. To confiscate, she had somehow managed to build a converter within the apparatus that could, in theory, allow any Digimon to contact The Darkness. Of course, that was hardly something that could be allowed, only Devimon had the mental and emotional strength to withstand the unprecedented stress that would result from having one's mind invaded by another in that matter. Anyone else would probably receive irreparable madness along with the wisdom of The Darkness, provided they survived at all. And if some misguided Digimon did attempt it and was indeed driven insane, it could do remarkable damage with the knowledge that it's shattered mind suddenly held. To prevent this, Pandoramon had specially constructed the device to not allow and Digimon other than Devimon to access The Darkness with it. Even Pandoramon herself had never attempted to make contact; only Devimon had ever spoken with it.  
  
As he was doing at that very moment.  
  
The transmitter was, appearances wise, a giant dome over the user with dozens of tendrils extending from all sides to the user's head. The point at which the tendrils converged was far to high up for most Digimon to reach, but because it was designed for Devimon alone, they reached the top of his tall, ghastly frame easily. His entire body was totally stiff as The Darkness poured into his mind, filling him with it's knowledge. At the far end of the room, perched next to a large monitor, Pandoramon still couldn't help but be jealous of him.  
  
Suddenly, one of the indicators flashed and signalled that the conversation was through. Pandoramon quickly deactivate the transmitter and the tendrils receded enough to allow Devimon to move without hitting them.  
  
"I trust your majesty found wisdom in your meeting?" Pandoramon stated, trying as always to be as formal as possible.  
  
"Always." Devimon answered, his otherworldly voice seeming to whisper from the entire room at once.  
  
"Might I inquire as to what you have learned?" she asked.  
  
"Not at the moment, no." Devimon curtly replied "In time, perhaps."  
  
"I see." Pandoramon sighed, only partially hiding her disappointment "I apologize. I was only wishing to learn what course of action your majesty plans to take."  
  
"Of course." Devimon muttered quietly, obviously caught up in whatever he had conversed with The Darkness over. After several second of silence, Pandoramon prodded again.  
  
"It puzzles me why you did not chose to illuminate me as to the arrival of the Digidestined so soon." she said, cautiously "It is obviously a part of the greater will of The Darkness that you didn't, but I must confess that it is beyond my comprehending."  
  
"It is very often that things are that way." Devimon reminded her, only then truly acknowledging her presence in the room "You must have faith and follow the path The Darkness as laid out for you and all of us."  
  
"Yes, but how can I fully serve if I am not fully aware of the will I am seeking to serve?" she asked, unable to hide her frustration.  
  
"The more one knows the lest one can act." Devimon reminded her, quoting one of his favorite saying "The burden and responsibility all but cripples the one who posses it. This is why The Darkness must operate through me and why I must rely upon you!"  
  
"But what if I fail you?" she blurted out, allowing her composure to slip somewhat in frustration "There's just so much responsibility on me already, and I have so many questions I've yet to have answered, and...What if I mess up?"  
  
"You do yourself a great disservice by worrying so." Devimon assured her, wrapping his frightening talons around her fragile body "You would not have been chosen for this duty if you were not ready for it."  
  
"I suppose not..." Pandoramon sighed, not quite convinced.  
  
Rather than continue to pressure the subject, Devimon simply turned to leave, treading on the tip of one of Pandoramon's wings the process. Although it hurt, she never made a sound.  
  
***************************  
  
Night in the Digital World made for quite a spectacle. Of course, the endlessly oscillating mass of colors that was the mid-day sky was fascinating as well, but the night was different. The inky blue that filled the sky at that time blocked most of the light out and most color with it. Still, the brightest waves managed to shine through the haze. And waves they were: soft, flowing ripples of light slowly mingling with each other from every imaginable direction. It was like watching some impossible ocean suspended in the heavens. Like the kaleidoscope of the day, it was almost hypnotizing, but a different kind of hypnosis. The day's sky had a way of exiting whoever spent too long starring into it, where as the night subdued with it's sleepy, meandering motions. It was as if God had designed night in the Digiworld to lull all it's occupants to sleep.  
  
One of those occupants refused to comply.  
  
Matt sat perched in one of the largest trees in the small woods the group had camped in. The nightmarish desert that had taken so long to traverse was finally behind them, but Matt was very troubled with were they were headed. Roughly a few day's journey from the woods was a mountain range in the center of File Island. Correction: it was really a single mountain, they had been told. A gigantic peak known as Infinity Mountain.  
  
The realm of Devimon.  
  
No matter how much Matt thought about it, he couldn't bring himself to believe it. They were actually going to challenge the dictator of the entire island! The shear stupidity of it alone boggled his mind; let alone the actual reality of the idea. How on earth - or the Digiworld, for that matter - did any of those fools actually expect to accomplish this?  
  
Oh, that's right. It was because they were the "Magical Digidestined"...  
  
Matt wished with all of his heart that they had never allowed Centarumon or Unimon to even talk to them, much less accompany them. Then neither of those maniacs would have had a chance to fill the other's heads with all their nonsense.  
  
Below him, Matt heard one of the two trouble makers making their rounds guarding the woods. If they were so sure about all this Digidestined business, Matt though, why were they making such a fuss about protecting them? Just standing guard was all well and good, but as long as they had been with the group, all the two fools ever did was fuss that everything they did was too dangerous. The way Matt saw it, they probably didn't really believe any of their claims any more than he did. They probably were just grabbing at what little happened to resemble these "Digidestined" all their ancient texts talked about and ignoring all the signs to the contrary. Matt had tried as hard as he could to make the others realize this, but it wasn't any use. That idiot Tai took to the thought of being a "messiah" immediately and managed to talk the others into it as well. And they were a stubborn bunch once they got their minds set on something. Izzy could probably be dissuaded, and he might be able to scare Joe or Mimi back into reality for a little bit, but the cowards would undoubtedly return to the majority's preferences eventually. Sora he wasn't sure about. She was level headed enough to listen to reason, but her friendship with the others - Tai in particular - would undoubtedly cause problems. Matt didn't have a clue if she would pull out on the rest of the group.  
  
In the end, it didn't wouldn't have really mattered if he'd convinced all of them; T.K. had bought into the idea hook, line, and sinker and refused to believe anything else. Every time Matt tried to get him to see things is a half-way sane manner, T.K. always replied with something along the lines of "But they said!". Somehow, Matt just couldn't bring himself to injure T.K.'s innocence and inform him that "they" didn't always know what was true and, this time, were probably saying otherwise even though they did. Not that T.K. wasn't well aware of the concept of lying; he wasn't stupid after all. It was just that he'd never seen something like this: here was something potentially life altering coming from people he trusted with his life. He couldn't fathom how someone so close could be lying about something so important.  
  
It was a shame that T.K. was too young during the divorce to remember clearly; he'd need no convincing then...  
  
Eventually, Matt's attention turned from the past back to the future. What was he going to do? He had very seriously considered ditching the whole group that very night and setting out to find a way of returning to Earth on his own. There were obviously plenty of knowledgeable Digimon out there. If he looked long enough, he'd probably be able to get himself home solo. As much as Matt liked the thought, he eventually gave up on it. After all, he knew next to nothing about the Digiworld; and even if he did, Devimon was making it a very dangerous place for one person to be alone. Well, sure he had Gabumon, but there was no doubt in Matt's mind that he would oppose any such idea. Also, T.K. would never agree, and there was no way in Hell Matt was leaving him alone in any group with Tai in it. The only course of action Matt could see was to remain with the group a little while longer and see how things played out. After all, It was easy for them to make one's self out to be a messiah in conversation, but when one actually came face to face with something like Devimon, things would no doubt be different. There was a chance that he would be able to sway them from this fool's crusade once it actually began in earnest.  
  
Another thought had briefly entered Matt's mind. What if they actually made themselves into these "Digidestined"? Not literally, of course, but if they played the roles Centarumon and Unimon were trying to pin on them, they might be able to curry favor with the locals of File Island (something they had had very little of up to then). If they played their cards right, they might be able to fashion their own little Digimon army. From what Matt had been told, no island wide uprising had ever been attempted against Devimon; maybe their shear numbers would overpower Devimon's strength without the "Digidestined" having to lift a finger?  
  
"Not bloody likely..." Matt laughed grimly to himself. Someone would probably see through the little show or demand that their "messiahs" lead them in battle themselves or something else. They simply knew too little about the "Digidestined" to accurately portray them. Centarumon and Unimon probably wouldn't be much help either. If they ever got so much as a wiff of what they were planing, they'd probably blab it to the whole island. And even if they somehow managed to pull the wool over File Island's collective eyes, it was doubtful that a horde of villagers - even brainwashed, fanatical villagers - would ever overcome Devimon. No; he'd wait until they reached Infinity Mountain and try to get them to turn around again. Seeing how easily they turned away from the right course of action when things got dangerous, it ought to be child's play to sway them from a wrong one...  
  
A sudden, involuntary yawn made Matt realize that he wasn't as immune to the sedating effects of the night sky as he'd thought. He reached up to rub his eyes and only then realized just how stiff his body had become. Matt didn't take very kindly to falling asleep in a tree as high as the one he was in; there was a long way to fall. Carefully, he made his way back to the ground and walked back to where the others had set up camp. Soon, he had drifted to sleep; but, given what was being planed for the days ahead, waking up wasn't something that he looked forward too.  
  
***************************  
  
"Rise and shine everybody!" Gomamon shouted, as he shook his companions awake. Well, he tried to, at least.  
  
"Mmmph...Just five more minutes mommy..." Tai mumbled, rolling over.  
  
"Or hours." Agumon added, groaning.  
  
"Or years." Mimi moaned, trying to ignore the little seal jabbing her side.  
  
"Man...What time is it?" Joe mumbled, trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes (without much success)  
  
"Whatever it is, it's too early..." Tai answered, starting - despite his best efforts - to wake up.  
  
"What time isn't `too early' for you?" Gomamon sighed.  
  
"Tomorrow." Tai stated plainly "At the very least."  
  
"And that'd be pushing it." Agumon added.  
  
"What are so tired for anyway?" Tentomon asked.  
  
"Cause it was so long before we got to sleep last night, that's why!" Tai grouched with a yawn.  
  
"Tai, the only reason we kept going so late is because you slept in so late yesterday morning!" Matt pointed out, himself having awoke an hour before "If we'd just start moving earlier, we'd be able to stop sooner!"  
  
"Of course, you realize that now he's going to start getting up late deliberately so that he annoys you." Joe sighed, noticing the wicked glint that showed up in Tai's eye.  
  
"Not if I can help it, he won't." Sora assured with a yawn before Tai had a chance to say anything (he still didn't get up). Sora started to fuss at him, but noticed something was amiss:  
  
"Hey...Where's Biyomon?"  
  
"Over here!" Biyomon called from behind the prickly bush that they had bedded down next too. A second later, she emerged from behind it, covered in stickers.  
  
"Whoa... What happened to you?" T.K. and Patamon asked in unison, both rather amused at the sight.  
  
"I suppose that the ground here is at a steeper slant than I thought." Biyomon sighed, picking the thistles from her pink feathers.  
  
"It could have been worse!" Tentomon pointed out from the small pond behind the said bush "If you had rolled very much farther, you'd have taken a little midnight swim!"  
  
"That doesn't take stickers out of your feathers." Biyomon grunted as she tugged at a particularly stubborn one.  
  
"But at least they're not wet ones!" Sora pointed out, giving her partner a hand.  
  
"Well, give me a call when you're done pruning the Digimon." Tai said, rolling over to block out the noise.  
  
"Tai Kamiya, you are getting up right now!" Sora firmly informed her (once) sleeping companion.  
  
"Yeah, Tai," Joe agreed "don't delay the inevitable!"  
  
"And quit dragging it out!" T.K. added, stretching.  
  
"This is getting kind of old." Agumon continued.  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Thanks a lot, Sora..." Tai grumbled, not taking kindly to suddenly being made into the least popular person in the Digiworld.  
  
"Oh, come on Tai..." Sora sighed, shaking her head.  
  
"No no no, you just go right on!" Tai interrupted, getting up and leaving "I just love having everybody fuss at me!"  
  
"Well seeing how often you make us do it..." Matt muttered, just loud enough for Tai to hear. Tai gust grunted something that probably wasn't meant to be understood and wandered out to the edge of the woods.  
  
"What's up with him?" T.K. asked to no one in particular.  
  
"Well, is every one ready to start moving again?" Centarumon asked, wandering in before anyone had a chance to answer T.K.  
  
"Give us a minute." Sora instructed, going off to find Tai. She came across him crouching by a tree at the abrupt edge of the woods.  
  
"Tai?... TAI?... HEY, TAI! HELLO?" Sora shouted, trying to get his attention.  
  
"I heard ya the first time." Tai grouched without looking at her.  
  
"Oh... OK..." Sora sighed, somewhat awkwardly "Look... I'm sorry about back there..."  
  
"Naw, it's all right." Tai slurred "You know how much I love to be put on the spot like that."  
  
Sora couldn't help but wince at that. Having know Tai as long as she did, she knew that it was the exact opposite with him. He loved to be "the popular one". It was actually a little funny when you though about it: he made such an effort to be the careless, independent clown because he DID care. There was this part of him that always seemed to be looking for some way to get approval from those around him. He needed it. Not exactly unusual, especially for a boy Tai's age, but he just took it so seriously. Not that he'd never once said any of this to Sora, of course, she had simply figured it out over the years.  
  
After several awkward seconds of silence, Sora gave up and decided to head back to the others. Before she'd gotten more than a step away, however, Tai finally spoke again:  
  
"It's all right." he sighed "It's not your fault. Matt's the one who made it into a big deal."  
  
"Uh, yeah. Sure." Sora "agreed", not wanting to tell him that she thought Matt was right.  
  
"You do know why he's like that, don't you?" Tai asked, with that wicked glint back in his eye.  
  
"No, Tai. I don't..." Sora replied, happy to humoring him if it would make him more co-operative.  
  
"It's all that leather." Tai explained "Let's see you be all sunshine-y when you running around 24-7 in leather underwear!"  
  
"I don't think he's got that much of an ensemble going." Sora giggled, sitting down next to Tai.  
  
"I bet he does!" Tai insisted "And they've probably got tacks in `em to prove how macho he is!"  
  
"Well, I have to admit, I'd have trouble questioning the macho quality of a guy who runs around in leather, tack-filled undies." Sora laughed, picturing it for a moment.  
  
"Kinda like that dude who was hanging around the beach on that one field trip." Tai continued "Remember him? Man... And it must have been 200 degrees too..."  
  
Sora started to think back, not to the incident Tai mentioned, but to her childhood in general. Specifically, the fact that Tai seemed to be present for just about all of it. It was kind of strange really, Tai seemed present for practically every event worth remembering (in fact, he instigated many of them himself). It was very ironic, or appropriate perhaps, that he should wind up with her in this: easily the most unforgettable event she would ever experience. Tai had obviously been thinking about the same thing:  
  
"You know what?" he asked, sounding uncharacteristic lost in thought.  
  
"What?" Sora asked, snapping back to reality.  
  
"I was just thinking..." Tai continued, still strangely quiet "And... Well... I just... I wanted to make sure you knew that I'm glad you're here."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Well, you know..." Tai explained "I'm just glad that, if I'm gonna get yanked off of the Earth and plopped on some... whatever this place actually is... Not that I'm really that glad at all, of course... Anyway, If I gotta go through that, I'm glad I'm going through it with you."  
  
"Oh...Thanks" Sora smiled, blushing.  
  
"I mean, if it weren't for you I'd a killed Matt after five minutes!" Tai laughed wickedly.  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"Oh, come on! You know what I mean." Tai explained "Admit it: we're lucky to have you around to play ref. I would have dug Matt a nice, gloomy little grave if you weren't around to keep me my nice, friendly self!"  
  
"Yeah, right..." Sora sighed, laughing softly at something totally different.  
  
"Hey, guys?" Agumon piped up from behind them "We're ready to go whenever you are!"  
  
"We're coming!" Sora called, still laughing a bit to herself as she got up.  
  
"OK, what'd I say?" Tai asked, starting to get that it wasn't his marvelous sense of humor she was laughing at.  
  
"Nothing, Tai..."  
  
"Come on, what?"  
  
"Really, it's nothing." Sora insisted "Nothing at all..."  
  
***************************  
  
It was reasonably warm that day, but there was enough of a breeze to keep it comfortable enough. The little caravan of humans and Digimon was far more organized that day that it had been in the past, thanks in no small part to their virtual drill sergeant Centarumon. He had insisted on grouping all the humans together in the center of what he called their "expedition" and organizing all their Digimon in a neat perimeter around them. If he had had his way, Centarumon would probably have tried to make them march in time as well, but he was fortunately kept in check by Unimon.  
  
Centarumon had insisted on their rescuing Unimon as soon as he had been freed from The Temple of Quadra. Apparently, Unimon had been infected by a black gear just before him and had while he had been successful in fighting of Devimon's direct control, the gear had driven him virtually insane. Centarumon guessed that Unimon had hidden himself where he couldn't do any harm, as he had done. After doing some snooping around, they found him living in an extremely unpleasant bog (needless to say, Mimi wasn't exactly thrilled during their visit) and got the gear out of him.  
  
It was that night, as the group spoke with the old Unicorn for the first time, that the seven children found out who they were.  
  
"There is a legend we Digimon have." Unimon had explained "It's a very old legend, passed down for centuries in this world. Most Digimon think of it as little more than a bedtime story; indeed, there's enough different versions of it floating around to pacify whole world of infants. But there are some, such as Centarumon and myself, who know it to be more. We have dedicated our existence to collecting and preserving ancient text concerning these legends, or as the most important ones are, `prophecies', dating back to long before they were corrupted to the level of campfire tales."  
  
"You mean those things that were burned up back at the temple?" Tentomon inquired.  
  
"Some of them were there," Unimon answered, more amused than annoyed at Tentomon's interruption "but most of the texts are hidden in other places. Certainly, never in as close proximity to each other as the scrolls of Quadra.  
  
"Anyway, the legend goes like this: Once, long ago, when the Digital Universe was still young, a great evil swept through this world. This being was the most powerful creature ever to spawn from our realm; every fiber of it's being was focused upon a single goal: DESTRUCTION. No Digimon alone could stand against him. But there was hope. A group of beings from a totally different dimension arrived and lead the Digimon against their enemy. Somehow, they had the power to trigger digivolutions in Digimon, which allowed them to defeat this dark menace."  
  
Unimon paused for a moment before continuing, letting his audience begin to piece together where he was going on their own first.  
  
"Hey, wait a minute!" T.K. finally piped up "That kind of sounds a bit like us! I mean, we came from earth and we can make our Digimon digivolve!"  
  
"Exactly!" Unimon said with a grin "And wait ;till you here this: It was said that if any evil so great ever threatened to swallow the entire Digital World again, a new group of warriors would arrive and save our world once again."  
  
For a few short moments, the crackling of the camp fire was the only sound coming from their camp ground.  
  
"W-W-Wait a minute..." Tentomon stuttered "You're not seriously suggesting that we're The Digidestined, are you?"  
  
"I'm afraid that I'm not suggesting anything." Unimon answered firmly "This is something I'm telling you. It was prophesied that roughly six or eight children from another realm than this would arrive in our time of peril. The would each be accompanied by a Digimon who could digivolve with the help of a device that each of the children would carry. Don't you see? You fit these prophecies perfectly! The Digital World is drowning in corruption. Vile warlords such as Devimon are raining terror upon Digimon everywhere. And here you are: seven children dropped down upon us from another dimension, accompanied by seven Digimon whom you can make to digivolve with your Digivices... You are the ones the prophesies have told us of! You are the ones who have come to save us!"  
  
"If you don't mind my asking," Matt interrupted, not buying any of this for a second "Where exactly did these `prophesies' or whatever come from?"  
  
"No one knows who first recorded them." Unimon answered "All we know is that they were recorded and have been preserved as accurately as we could manage."  
  
"And exactly how long have you been `preserving' these things?" Matt continued.  
  
"No one knows for sure." Unimon explained "Thousands of years, most likely."  
  
Then Matt did something no one (besides T.K.) had ever seen or heard:  
  
He laughed out loud.  
  
It wasn't a very pleasant laugh either, it was more like a sound a wild animal would make while playing with it's prey. A cold, mocking, quiet, yet powerful chuckle that somehow managed to sent chills down the spines of everyone who heard it. "So, let me get this straight..." Matt continued "You've got these prophesies. You don't know who they're by. You don't know when they were made. You've been passing them down for THOUSANDS of years-"  
  
"You have trouble believing what I'm telling you?" Unimon interrupted.  
  
"WHO WOULDN'T?" Matt shouted "Hell, it sounds like you didn't even have a sure number of these... `Digidestined' or whatever the were. How can you possibly have any idea this stuff is talking about us, or if it's even true at all?"  
  
"THE ANCIENT TEXTS ARE NO FRAUDS!!!" Centarumon bellowed angrily "YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS TO BE SLANDERING THEN SO!!!"  
  
"Calm yourself, friend." Unimon the old horse insisted "He has every right to be asking questions. You would too if you were in his situation."  
  
"So, in other words, we're like heros?" Tai asked, taking to the idea far more readily than Matt.  
  
"In every sense of the word." Unimon replied, glad that at least someone was listening.  
  
"No, Tai. NO." Matt firmly countered "I know that look. I've got a pretty good Idea where this is going and I won't let it. This is stupid."  
  
"Hey, maybe you think so, but think is sounds kind of cool!" Tai replied.  
  
"Yeah, and I think hanging you by your own hair would be cool, but that doesn't make it a good idea." Matt countered "Now, I've never seen any legendary heros or anything up close, but I don't think they look very much like us!"  
  
"He does have a point there." Joe agreed.  
  
"And even you have to admit that this whole idea is pretty tough to swallow." Matt continued.  
  
"I know I will..." Mimi concurred.  
  
"Well, if were NOT the Digidestined, then what the hell are we doing here?"  
  
Tai challenged.  
  
Try as he might, Matt couldn't come up with a response to that.  
  
"That's a good point." Tentomon mussed "I certainly can't come up with another reason why you would ever be brought to the Digiworld."  
  
"Do any other humans ever come here?" Sora asked Unimon.  
  
"No. Only the Digidestined may cross into this realm." Unimon answered.  
  
"Well that settles it!" Tai announced "We're the Digidestined and that makes us HEROS!!!"  
  
And so it was. Within minutes, Tai had succeeded in convincing everyone but Matt that what Unimon and Centarumon were saying was true. And now, here they were; trekking off to pay Devimon a visit.  
  
"So, run this by me again." Matt asked Unimon "HOW exactly are we supposed to sneak up on someone who controls practically every inch of the island interior?"  
  
"Just because he commands it in theory, he doesn't have to physically control it." Unimon explained "We are headed to Systems Canyon, it is the only waterway from the coast to Infinity Mountain. It is also the only entrance to a number of mines that Devimon needs to manufacture his Black Gears. Now, the mines are extremely dangerous to navigate and working in them is more of an art than a science. Thus, Digimon with Gears in them are incapable of working them."  
  
"So instead, he made a deal with the miners already there that he'd leave them alone if they started working for him." Matt finished, catching on quickly.  
  
"Very good!" Unimon congratulated "Obviously, these Digimon are driven by greed and self preservation as opposed to any major sense of loyalty or morals; otherwise, they wouldn't be aligned with Devimon. Fortunately for us, that can be made to work against Devimon as easily as it has been to make it work for him."  
  
"You want to try to bribe them into helping us?" Matt asked "What can our little... bunch out bid Devimon?"  
  
"We can't." Unimon explained "Not in terms of buying out everyone, anyway. However, we should be able to convince some individuals to assist us long enough to get us what we need."  
  
"And that is..."  
  
"Safe passage along the Canyon River straight into Infinity Mountain." Unimon answered "Once there, we'll already be behind most of Devimon's lines of defence and we can hid him by surprise."  
  
As much as Matt hatted to admit it, the plan did seem to have merit to it. There was one problem though: "What if no one is willing to help us?"  
  
"Don't worry, there's always at least one Digimon in that canyon who's willing to do what you need for the right price." Unimon laughed "most of them would sell you the guy standing right next to them if you could pay them enough."  
  
"I assume that YOU are going to be doing all this paying?" Matt asked "I doubt that any of us would have anything of interest."  
  
"Don't worry." Unimon assured him "We've thought of everything."  
  
If there was any saying that truly terrified Matt, that was definitely one of them.  
  
***************************  
  
The water that slowly slipped along the bottom of Systems Canyon wasn't anywhere as dirty as it looked, but in what little light actually made it down that far, everything looked dirty. At least, that's what Myrtilemon thought. He hated coming here. He hated the trip across the ocean, he hated the sickening food he had to bring with him, he hatted the smelly, smart- aleck Digimon he had to talk too once he got there, and most of all, he hated the ugly, stinking, grimy dirt that was all over EVERYTHING. It was like the miners made sure to grind everything into dust and spread it all over whatever they could find just to bug him. He desperately missed his home back on Server and his nice, clean shop. How he'd ever allowed himself to get locked into that lousy contract was more than Myrtilemon could ever figure out. Somehow, he'd wound up having to accompany every single shipment of supplies to the mines himself instead of sending a currier like normal Digimon did.  
  
So there he was, floating around at the bottom of that smelly canyon waiting for some smelly messenger from The Mining Consortium to come take the supplies and make him wait a few smelly days to be paid. The it was another week on the ocean before the torturously short two months were over and he'd have to lock up the shop and do it all again. Not only was it bad business, but it was bad for his health, and most of all IT WAS STUPID!  
  
"Hey, you ready for us to take the stuff up now?" a voice called from the top of the lifting arm at the dock.  
  
"What kind of question is that?" Myrtilemon fumed "OF COURSE I AM!!!"  
  
"All right, just a sec!" the operator shouted back, bringing giant arm around to lift the barge up onto the loading platform. It took forever, as usual. And, also as usual, Myrtilemon would have given ANYTHING for it to all just vanish off the face of the Digital World.  
  
****************************  
  
Izzy had remarked that the interior of Systems Canyon looked like Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest dream or worst nightmare, depending on how one looked at it. He certainly was right. Even if the canyon had been shallow enough for one at the top to see the bottom (but it was many times too deep for that), it would have been hidden for the amazing web of platforms that jutted straight out of the wall and almost seemed to float in midair. There were levels upon levels of walkways and platforms sticking so far out that it was amazing that they could even support their own weight, much less their inhabitants. The whole canyon was abuzz with more Digimon than any of the humans could ever have imagined. Every single size and shape and color that any of them could dream up was wandering around somewhere down in that mess of a canyon. And as impressive at it was from above, it was even more amazing up close.  
  
"Um, are you sure this is a good idea?" Sora whispered (or as close to it as could be heard over the droning sounds of the crowds and machinery) to Unimon "What if someone sees us and runs off to tell Devimon?"  
  
"As long as you stay out of their business, they won't care what you do or what Devimon thinks of you." Unimon assured her "Besides, Digimon from all over this world come through here. You're hardly the most unusual thing they've ever seen."  
  
"I'll take that as a complement." Mimi piped up from behind.  
  
"Man, this place is COOL!" T.K. shouted in awe, peering over a handrail into the dozens of levels below.  
  
"And LOUD..." Palmon complained, trying her best to shut the endless droning out of her ears.  
  
"I would LOVE to have a chance to speak with some of the architects who built this place." Izzy commented, looking around with T.K. "These structures are absolutely incredible!"  
  
"Good luck." Tentomon replied "Most of this stuff is older than all of us put together."  
  
"Let's just do what we need to do and get out!" Matt pressured, dragging T.K. back from the ledge "I'm sure that a few of these guys would imagine that Devimon would give a pretty hefty reward for turning us in."  
  
"And risk having Devimon venture down into these depths himself?" Centarumon laughed "Never. These cowards want to keep him as far away as they can!"  
  
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Tai asked "Let's do this thing!"  
  
It took a VERY long time to weave their way through the pulsating crowds and to climb down the layers of platforms before reaching the river. Along the way, various peddlers tried to either sell them all sorts of useless brick a brack or to buy things off of them. One restaurant owner even made an offer to Unimon to purchase Sora and Mimi as waiters! Tai, of course, leapt at the chance to have something new to torment them over. It took a well placed fist from Mimi to finally shut him up. After several more hours of wandering, the finally arrived at the docks of Canyon River.  
  
By the time they were that far down, most of the light from above had been blocked out by the platforms or absorbed by the increasingly dirty air. Thus, most of the illumination came from flickering, artificial sources that bathed the docks in a dim, blue light. Somehow, it seemed to make the whole area seem colder looking at it.  
  
"Well, here we are." Unimon announced, somewhat needlessly.  
  
"Oh, goodie..." Mimi grumbled.  
  
"Well, now that were here, how are we supposed to find someone who'll be willing to help us?" Matt asked.  
  
Before Unimon had a chance to answer, a loud, obnoxious voice rang out from inside the small bar just in front of them:  
  
"YEAH, YEAH, I KNOW WHAT DEVIMON SAYS ABOUT THE TAX JUNK DOWN HERE, AND I DON'T CARE! I DON'T EVEN LIVE ON THIS STINKIN' ISLAND! HE'S GOT NOTHING ON ME, OK? NOW HURRY UP AND GET ME THAT DRINK!!!"  
  
"That sounds encouraging!" Gomamon laughed, wandering inside.  
  
"Say, there's not an age limit for that place is there?" Tai asked.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll keep nice and sober Tai!" Sora assured him.  
  
"What's all that about?" T.K. asked Matt, the two of them taking up the rear.  
  
"Nothing you need to worry about." Matt replied "Just stick close tome, OK?"  
  
Just as Matt was about to enter, he suddenly got the feeling that someone behind him was watching him. He turned around to look, and found several Digimon wandering around the walkways in front of the bar door, but none that seemed particularly interested in him or any of his companions. Still, he nearly went out to take another look; but T.K. tugged at his side and brought him in with the rest of them. Had Matt actually gone looking, he might have spied a strange form that had indeed been watching him from the far end of that particular platform: the from of a girl, roughly his age, with a pair of limp wings hanging behind her.  
  
The maker of all the commotion was a short, stubby Digimon by the name of Myrtilemon. Most of his face was hidden behind the collar of his jacket, he shaggy yellow hair and his dark derby hat. All that was clear visible was two large, yellow eyes.  
  
"OK, so lemme get this straight..." Myrtilemon said, downing his umpteenth glass of a strange, green liquid "This bunch of looser are supposed to be the Digidestined and you want me to take you to Infinity Mountain so you can go do you hero thing, right?"  
  
"That's it in a nutshell." Unimon replied.  
  
"Well, let me go ahead and say this straight off..." Myrtilemon replied, whipping his mouth "You're crazy. All of ya."  
  
"Well, I'm glad at least ONE other person thinks so..." Matt mumbled, just loud enough to be heard.  
  
"But then, this is about business, not my personal feelings, right? So let's see..." Myrtilemon continued "If you are crazy, I don't have much reason to care, do I? All I have to do is get you to the foot of Infinity Mountain and hightail it outa there. Then I go home with twice what I woulda made otherwise. Doesn't sound that bad..."  
  
"I'm glad you think so." Unimon replied.  
  
"But who knows? You just might be right about all this Digidestined mumbo jumbo!" Myrtilemon pointed out "If you off Devimon, then there's no more full-on mining around here anymore and I don't have any more customers here no more..."  
  
"Which DOES sound bad..." Sora piped up, getting worried.  
  
"Are you kidding?" Myrtilemon laughed "That's even BETTER! If you could get me outa this lousy contract, I'd pay YOU! If I never see this lousy pit again, it'll be too soon!"  
  
"Well then, it's settled!" Unimon grinned "You'll get half your fee up front, and the rest when we're at Infinity Mountain plus a little extra if we enjoy the trip."  
  
"Well, I ain't much of a tour guide, but I'll see what I can do!" their new guide agreed.  
  
"When will we be departing?" Centarumon asked "We would like to be gone as soon as possible."  
  
"Well, first I gotta get all my cargo on shore and stuff." Myrtilemon thought aloud "That'll take the better part of the day; and I don't think you wanna be spending the night here... How's this evening sound?"  
  
"Sounds fine too me!" Tai declared.  
  
"Well, the sooner we get moving the better." Joe agreed "Let's just get all this stuff over with."  
  
"Well, if you don't mind, might we take a look around your ship?" Tentomon requested.  
  
"Yeah, sure. Knock yourself out. It's at port five." Myrtilemon sighed, singling for another drink "Just don't touch anything, especially the cargo. Those miner bozos beat the crate up enough as it is."  
  
"Don't worry!" Biyomon assured him "We'll be as careful as we can!"  
  
"Um, Matt?" T.K. asked as the whole group filed out "Do I still have to go to sleep at a bedtime again?"  
  
"I think we'll make an exception this time." Matt told him.  
  
"You'll be lucky if you sleep at all my little friend." Centarumon pointed out as they made their way down the steps to the boat.  
  
Back in the bar, Myrtilemon was lost in thought. This whole deal wasn't sitting well with him at all. The timing wasn't the way he would have liked. Maybe if those lunatics had come up first, and THEN the counter offer was made, he'd have been more comfortable. But he didn't like having to play babysitter for them all night knowing what he did. There were too many chances for someone to catch on and way too many of them were going to be on the boat. If they figured him out, he was toast. Almost on cue, Pandoramon emerged from the shadows behind him.  
  
"I trust everything went well?" she asked, even though she'd been there for the whole conversation.  
  
"Yeah." Myrtilemon assured her "They don't suspect nothing."  
  
"Good." Pandoramon sighed "As wee discussed, there will be no attempts made on them while they are on your barge. There will be no danger."  
  
"And you're gonna make SURE my contract gets changed?" Myrtilemon pressured "THAT'S all that matters to me. Not you, not Devimon, not those weirdos. I wanna go home and never come back here again. NEVER. Got that?"  
  
"Absolutely." Pandoramon assured him "No one will dare question it."  
  
"Good..." Myrtilemon sighed "And you better made sure that they never find out that I did it, OK? If they manage to weasel outa all this, I don't wanna have any of `em coming after me."  
  
"None of the will `weasel out' of our grasp." Pandoramon insisted "But it will be as you wish."  
  
"All right... I'll have `em at the Mountain by 2. Give me about thirty minutes to get good and far away before you go and do whatever ya got planed. OK?"  
  
"Fine." Pandoramon agreed, slipping back into the shadows again.  
  
Myrtilemon wasn't kidding, he was hardly a tour guide and his barge was hardly a pleasure craft, but it managed to get them where they were going fine. By the time they were near Infinity Mountain, the canyon was so dark that they could have simply sat still all night and no one would have ever noticed. Some how, though, they wound up at a sudden wall of stone that jutted up in front of them. At the base of the wall was a large gap that the river flowed out of. At first, it seemed that they would have to take the boat straight in, but Centarumon insisted that there were dry walkways on either side of the water way.  
  
"Well, here we are!" Myrtilemon declared "Everybody off!"  
  
One by one, the passenger fumbled down the dimly lit stairs to the slippery rocks below.  
  
"WHOA!" Mimi shouted, stumbling around on the stones "I thought you said this stuff was supposed to be dry!"  
  
"Well, it's better than wadding around in the river!" Gabumon pointed out.  
  
"But it's worse than being on dry land, too!" Palmon countered.  
  
"Whatever..." Tai groaned "Let's just try to stay out of the water, OK?"  
  
"Um, why don't we have any flashlights?" Sora asked "I know Joe has some."  
  
"Ask general Centarumon." Joe grumbled, wanting more than anything to get them out of his bag.  
  
"Those lights would attract too much attention." Centarumon explained "We need to stay unnoticed until we are right on top of Devimon!"  
  
Meanwhile, back on the boat, Unimon took care of paying Myrtilemon.  
  
"Oh, come on!" he whined "The trip couldn't have been THAT bad!"  
  
"It wasn't." Unimon explained "But then, I never said you'd get a BIG bonus, did I?"  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever..." Myrtilemon sighed, getting back at the wheel as Unimon leapt off the boat "Nice knowing ya..."  
  
With that, Myrtilemon left the unfortunate travelers to wander straight into their trap...  
  
To be continued... 


	9. Sleeping With The Devil

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book one  
  
Chapter nine  
  
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair  
  
Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air  
  
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light  
  
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim  
  
I had to stop for the night  
  
There she stood in the doorway;  
  
I heard the mission bell  
  
And I was thinking to myself  
  
`This could be Heaven or this could be Hell'  
  
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way  
  
There were voices down the corridor,  
  
I thought I heard them say...  
  
Welcome to the Hotel California  
  
Such a lovely place (such a lovely face)  
  
Plenty of room at the Hotel California  
  
Any time of year, you can find it here  
  
Her mind is Tiffany Twisted, she got the Mercedes bends  
  
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends  
  
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.  
  
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget  
  
So I called up the Captain  
  
`Please bring me my wine'  
  
He said `We haven't had that spirit here since 1969'  
  
And still those voices are calling from far away  
  
Wake you up in the middle of the night  
  
Just to hear them say...  
  
Welcome to the Hotel California  
  
Such a lovely place (such a lovely face)  
  
They livin' it up at the Hotel California  
  
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis  
  
Mirrors on the ceiling  
  
The pink champagne on ice  
  
And she said `We are all just prisoners here, of our own device'  
  
And in the master's chambers  
  
They gathered for the feast  
  
They stab it with their steely knives  
  
But they just can't kill the beast  
  
Last thing I remember, I was  
  
Running for the door  
  
I had to find a passage back  
  
To the place I was before  
  
`Relax,' said the night man,  
  
`We are programmed to receive.  
  
You can check out any time you like  
  
But you can never leave.'  
  
"Hotel California"  
  
by Don Felder, Don Henly, and Glenn Frey  
  
from the album Hotel California by The Eagles  
  
Chapter nine  
  
Sleeping With The Devil  
  
The Digidestined had been traveling up the base of Infinity Mountain all day, but they could never have told it to you themselves. The whole day, they had been underground, half-crawling up the steep banks of the river. The ground wasn't at quite enough of an angle to require them to be on all fours, but they had been traveling upward so long that they were too afraid of falling to do otherwise. Up at the top, as usual, Centarumon valiantly lead the way. Shortly behind him, Unimon followed. Juts far enough behind to seem like they were lagging, their heroic Digidestined slowly brought up the rear. Matt and Tai were usually the closest to their guides, whereas Joe, Mimi, and their Digimon took up the very back, thanks to the considerable luggage they insisted on carrying with them.  
  
"How much further is it?" T.K. groaned for God only knew what time.  
  
"It had better not be much." Matt replied, more to Centarumon and Unimon than his brother.  
  
"I'll say, all this water is getting me SOAKED!" Mimi concurred "I though we were supposed to be beside the river, not IN it!"  
  
"Hey, why don't you take a nice leap into that thing and see what it feels like?" Tai replied, having unintentionally done so himself earlier "All that splashing around back there is NOTHING!"  
  
"It's bad enough." Mimi shot back.  
  
"I don't recall ever saying that climbing the tallest mountain in the Digital World was going to be easy." Unimon reminded his companions.  
  
"I don't seem to recall you mentioning that `tallest' part at all." Joe panted, dragging his duffel bag behind him.  
  
"I said I was sorry about that." Unimon sighed "It's just the kind of thing most Digimon think goes without saying."  
  
"Well, we would appreciate it if you refrained from assuming that we know anything about this world." Izzy suggested.  
  
"I would have hoped that your partners would have brought you up to speed on such matters." Unimon pointed out.  
  
"Um... Well... You see..." Tentomon stuttered "We've just been so caught up in life or death situations that there really hasn't been time for that sort of thing lately..."  
  
"Anyway, it's too late now." Matt interrupted "We've probably spent a whole day going up this thing. Whadda ya want to do? Turn around and go all that way down again?"  
  
"Matt's right." Gabumon concurred "We should just press on!"  
  
"Um... Actually, it would be quicker to go back down." Agumon whispered to his friend "We're still nowhere near the top."  
  
"I know that and you know that..." Gabumon whispered back.  
  
"Besides, there's some level ground not too far above us where we can set up camp." Centarumon commented.  
  
"Well, we'd better get there QUICK..." Mimi grunted.  
  
Of course, it still took several hours, but eventually, a dim light began to appear above them from an opening in the rock.  
  
"There it is!" Unimon declared "This is where the river and us part ways!"  
  
"And not a moment too soon!" Sora replied.  
  
"Well, don't go rejoicing just yet." Centarumon called down, having leapt up to the opening "You'll probably not be very pleased with what's out here."  
  
"As long as it's not a lake or anything, we'll be fine!" Mimi assured him.  
  
Well, it wasn't a lake, but that probably would have been far nicer than what WAS waiting outside. The mouth in the stone opened into a huge, dreary landscape that looked like something out of the final scene on a disaster movie. By a long stretch of imagination, it could have been called a city, but cities require buildings. Intact ones, at that. Instead, nothing but debris ashen rubble stretched out before them until vanishing into the black, hazy air. Portions of walls jutted up from the piles of wreckage like withered fingers reaching out of the mud to try and grab hold of something. What at one point must have been streets now looked more like graveyards: endless stretches of broken pavement knocked on it's side so that they seemed like sick tombstones. Aside from the splashing of the river over rocks behind them, the only sound in this place was the mournful whistling of the cold wind snakeing it's way through the dead wreckage, occasionally dislodging a piece of something and sending it crashing into the broken ground.  
  
"Well... This is cheery..." Tai muttered, trying to seem less frightened than he truly was.  
  
"Where are we?" Sora asked.  
  
"There's no name for this place." Unimon answered "For most Digimon, it's the farthest they ever climb Infinity Mountain. They either turn around or keep going and disappear in the caverns afterwards."  
  
"Y-Y-You mean we're not at the top?" Mimi stuttered.  
  
"Oh, far from it." Unimon replied "But this is the last time we'll be above ground while we're here."  
  
"Too bad it's not someplace where we could enjoy it..." Gomamon muttered.  
  
"Well, come on." Unimon instructed, seeing Centarumon beacon for them in the distance "There's not much of anything worth guarding in this place, so we shouldn't have to worry about Devimon's minions just yet."  
  
"So where are we going?" Sora asked.  
  
"To find someplace to rest, of course!" he answered.  
  
"Oh, yeah. We'll be getting a REAL good night's sleep in this place..." Joe sardonically joked.  
  
For what seemed like hours, the group wandered through the dark, lifeless rubble. Unlike most of the areas the seven humans had encountered so far, this place, in all it's ghastly nature, seemed far more 'real' to them. These empty shells of buildings weren't just a few burnt walls over piles of trash. They actually looked like someone had lived in them before... whatever it was happened. Stores still had charred signs advertising the special of the day in their shattered windows. Street signs poked out of the ground at funny angles, still trying to give directions with signs that had most of the paint scraped off for streets that didn't exist outside of long stretches of rockpiles. Battered welcome mats sat in front of ragged door frames that opened into four abandoned piles of trash that were once walls. It was all terribly unsettling.  
  
"You know..." Matt half-conciously muttered to Gabumon "I used to have dreams about places like this. All the time..."  
  
"Those dreams didn't happen to mention any good places to stay, did that?" Gabumon asked, trying to liven the mood.  
  
"Naw..." Matt replied "I usually just wandered around until I woke up..."  
  
"Oh, that's pleasant." Tai spoke up.  
  
"I'm glad you approve." Matt sighed.  
  
"HEY! Everybody! Look at this!" Biyomon shouted from behind There's something off to the right!"  
  
Centarumon immediately ran off to check and, sure enough, a solid, intact roof was sticking up above the ruined skyline.  
  
"Whadda ya think?" Gomamon asked him.  
  
"I think we might have found where we're spending the night." Centarumon answered "Let's check it out!"  
  
It didn't take long to reach what turned out to be a giant mansion, totally intact and without any visible damage at all. The tall sides of the building were mostly black and covered in strange, intricate carvings. Apparently, it was on the edge of the very river they had followed earlier and the back seemed to hang right over it. Although all the many windows had their curtains drawn there was obviously plenty of light on inside.  
  
"Well! This sure looks like a nice place to crash!" Tai declared, making his way to the door.  
  
"If I tell you that I don't like it, would you even bother listening?" Matt asked.  
  
"Nope! Not for a second!" Tai replied.  
  
"I would" Centarumon said quietly "Something's not right here..."  
  
"What, that there's a big fancy mansion in the middle of this trash heap?" Tai asked "Sure. I think it's kinda funky too, but since when was that anything out of the ordinary in the Digiworld?"  
  
"You have to admit, we've seen stranger stuff." Joe agreed.  
  
"No... It's not that..." Centarumon continued "Something else is wrong here..."  
  
"Well I for one couldn't care less!" Mimi declared, following Tai "I'm sick and tired of walking around! I'm going inside!"  
  
"I'm right behind ya Mimi!" Palmon piped up, mimicking Mimi's determined stride.  
  
"Don't worry, old friend." Unimon assured Centarumon "I don't think we've got anything to worry about just yet."  
  
"Aside from the fact that this whole place seems like the perfect setting for a trap." Matt added.  
  
"Except that no one knows we're here." Unimon corrected "Even Devimon would have needed to know we were coming in advance to throw someplace like that together."  
  
"And how do you know that he doesn't?" Matt pressured.  
  
"Trust me." Unimon began.  
  
"Not likely pal..." Matt grunted, following the others inside  
  
****************************  
  
Someone had told Pandoramon once that she thought too much for her own good, that her endless theorizing and suspicion would eventually get the better of her. She had to admit it, sometimes she began to think they were right. Ever since the arival of the Digidestined, something about the way Devimon was acting struck her as strange. Suddenly, he seem a bit quieter about his plans. While he used to enjoy explaining the simple genius of his and The Darkness' plans, now he seemed to be keeping it to himself.  
  
If it had been anyone else, Pandoramon might have started to think he was hiding something.  
  
For as long as Pandoramon could remember, she had had a little voice in her head that loved to point out when something didn't add up. When she was just a rookie, the village elders had told her the same little fairy tales they told all young Digimon who asked where they came from or how they digivolved. It was that little voice that made her realize that there proboly weren't any "magi Digi-fairies" that visit good little Digimon at night and help her digivolve. It was that little voice that made her see that was just what they said to cover up the fact that they had no idea. It was that same little voice that pushed her to leave her village behind in favor of Infinity Mountain to study under Devimon despite the elder's objections. After all, how could they know for a fact that he was a dangerous, lying lunatic when not one of them had even seen him themselves? All her life, Pandoramon had questioned what was presented to her and felt like a better Digimon for it.  
  
But now that little voice was beginning to question some things that she didn't dare doubt anymore.  
  
What if the reason Devimon was acting odd was because he wasn't expecting the Digidestined to arive so soon? It could be that he'd hoped that he would already have all of File Island under control first and now was having to re-write his plans.  
  
"Yeah." Pandoramon laughed to herself "And it could be that I'm actually three Gekomon in disguise."  
  
Obviously, that whole idea was riiculous. Devimon had done too much, come too far; no one could have just been making something like this up when they when along. Even now, he was clearly operating on some kind of a plan, even if it wasn't exactly clear to her just what it was yet. And what about The Darkness? He had been in contact the whole time, after all...  
  
That's where that little voice really kicked in.  
  
He had spent a lot of time contacting The Darkness, much more time than usual. It made a resonable amount of sense, of course. With the Digidestined suddenly on his doorstep, why wouldn't he be seeing as much guidence as he could? Yet he was always so quiet afterwards, so lost in thought, he almost seemed troubled. Had he indeed been caught off guard and was now having to face it? Could it be that he really had no idea with the Digidestined?  
  
There was one sure fire way to have all her questions answered: Pandoramon could try contacting The Darkness herself. Devimon had forbiden it for anyone but himself, but it was still possible. After all, she built the transmitter in the first place, she could deactivate the security systems in her sleep. No one would ever know...  
  
NO she told herself. It was too risky. Even if, somehow, Devimon didn't find out (and he probobly would) the transmitter itself was just too dangerous. It was custom built for Devimon and he had made it very clear that no other Digimon could handel the mental stress of contacting The Darkness. For all her studying, Pandoramon still had only the vaugest idea how Devimon's brain was constructed, so she had every reason to believe him. That thing was built to transmit a specific frequency of thought patterns into Devimon's highly unique brain structure, it could tear Pandoramon's mind apart from the inside if she tried it. Besides, what good would it do her anyway? She didn't have any proof that something odd was really going on, just a hazy suspicion. Also, Devimon had every right to keep his plans to himself. There was no reason for Pandoramon to risk her life just because she wanted more information than she needed.  
  
Still, that little voice hadn't steered her wrong before, right?  
  
Eventually, she put all those thoughts out of her min; she had more importabt things to worry about. The Digidestined were all inside the mansion now, she would need to get to work soon.  
  
After that, all those questions would become irrelevant and everythng would be back to normal again.  
  
****************************  
  
The inside of the mansion was hardly like anything the Digidestined had ever seen. In many ways, it was quite close to the Temple of Quadra, but it was also the exact opposite of it as well. All the rooms were far taller than their width would have required, making everyone within feel terribly small by comparison. Everything inside was adorned with elaborate carvings of plants and animals and anything else one could imagine. In these senses, the mansion should have been the most beutiful place they'd ever seen.  
  
But it was so dark...  
  
Everything about it was dark. All the walls were pitch black. Most of the furniture was as well, and any color in the ornamentation was dark enough that it barely registered as such. What dim light fixtures there were seemed deliberately placed where they would cast more shadow than light. Obviously, it had hardly the most comforting place to spend the night.  
  
"This place gives me the creeps!" Patamon had said when they entered the lobby.  
  
"Me too..." Sora agreed, shuddering for no apparent reason "Are you sure this is a good idea?"  
  
"No..." Tai replied "But would you rather camp out in rubble land?"  
  
"I hate to admit it, but he's got a point." Matt sighed "It would be a better idea to sleep in a building that actually has a roof..."  
  
"Well, let's go see what kind of accommodations this place has!" Gomamon insisted.  
  
"OK..." Joe said apprehensively "But, from the looks of this place, I bet there's all kinds of gargoyles and stuff all over the place..."  
  
Well, fortunately for Joe, there weren't any gargoyles hung up over the beds, but there hardly needed to be. Everything was creepy enough. Besides, no one could sleep that night anyway. How could they, knowing who they were on the way to do battle with? It's hard to pick out who was more intimidated by the thought of Devimon: the Digimon, who had become quite familiar with him over the years, or the humans, to whom the whole idea was new. It didn't really matter in the end; they were all scared out of their wits. So, with sleep out of the question, there was nothing left to do but talk...  
  
"So, um... I was curious, Joe..." Gomamon asked, a little uncomfortably "What made you decide to be a doctor? I mean, it really doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd be interested in..."  
  
"Well... I dunno... I guess I'd always just liked the thought of helping people..." Joe replied, somewhat absentmindedly.  
  
"Well, pretty much everybody does..." Gomamon continued "But most of them would want a job like that. Sounds... I dunno... Just sounds MESSY..."  
  
"Well... There's a little more to it than that..." Joe confessed "See, when I was a kid, we had this kitten somebody gave us. I dunno why they did, `cause our apartment didn't allow pets. So we gave it away to some friends of ours to take care of."  
  
"Tough luck..." Gomamon mussed.  
  
"That's not the half of it." Joe sighed "They hadn't even had it for a week when it got run over in their garage. It didn't die... Well, not then, anyway, but it got banged up pretty bad. Eventually, they had to just put it to sleep."  
  
"Ouch..."  
  
"Tell me about it... But I got to thinking, and one day it hit me that that sort of thing happens to people all the time. The get into accidents and wind up so bad that they decide that it'd be better to just put them out of their misery! That sort of thing just didn't sit well with me. `there has to be SOME way to help people like that' I though... So I finally decided that, if no one else could do it, then I would."  
  
"And thus, your illustrious quest into medicine began?"  
  
"Basically, yeah."  
  
"You know, a lot of people say that you're bearing intense emotional scarring because of that..."  
  
"Well, my Dad watches a lot of ER too..." Joe added with a grin "That probably had something to do with it..."  
  
"Weeee!!!" Patamon giggled, bouncing around on the bed "This thing is SPRINGY!!!"  
  
"I know!" T.K. agreed, rolling around "I used to have a bed like this once, it wasn't as big though."  
  
"I though you said your old bed felt like all that moss and stuff that was back in the forest."  
  
"It did." T.K. explained "But that was a different bed."  
  
"So... Did you have any more beds?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, a bunch of `em. See right after Mom and Dad broke up we moved around a bunch. Mom kept hopping around between different jobs... and different boyfriends."  
  
"Ohhh.... Were they nice?"  
  
"I dunno, I never really got to know many of `em." T.K. said, thinking back  
  
"There was this one guy, right after it happened, that I she married. But I was too little to remember when it happened and they broke up too pretty quick. After that, she just stuck to dateing for a while, lately she hasn't even done that..."  
  
"How come?" Patamon asked "Did they not like her?"  
  
"I don't think that's it. I think that she didn't like them. I kind of remember her fussing with them a bunch."  
  
"I wonder why..."  
  
"You wanna know what I think?" T.K. whispered, like he had a VERY important secret.  
  
"Sure, what?"  
  
"I think she misses Daddy."  
  
"Well then, why don't they just get married again?"  
  
"She says it's `cause he's probably still mad at her, but Matt said he wasn't. But then, Matt doesn't like to talk to Mom, so he may not have told her that yet..."  
  
"Come on, Mimi!" Palmon yawned "Let's go to bed! I'm tired!"  
  
"Don't worry, this is the last load..." Mimi assured her, cramming the last of her clothes into the washing machine "If this place has a fully functioning washer and drier, I plan to use `em!"  
  
"But it's LATE! Can't you do this tomorrow?"  
  
"TOMORROW?" Mimi replied, exasperated "How am I supposed to sleep knowing what a horrible condition my clothes are in? If you want to sleep, you go right ahead back to our room."  
  
"WHAT?" Palmon shrieked "I'm not going all the way back there by myself! It's scarry!!!"  
  
"Then help me get this stuff in and we'll be done quicker!"  
  
"Oh, all right..."  
  
Tentomon was still sound asleep when Izzy got back from the kitchen. He wasn't sure what it was about his metabolism that gave him such a weakness for midnight snacks, but he was ALWAYS at his hungriest at night. Especially on the eve of something important.  
  
Like that night before the trip to his uncle's wedding, for example...  
  
Actually, the wedding it's self was quite forgettable aside from the unfortunate disaster of the cake collapsing (injuring several people), it was what had happened that night that Izzy remembered so vividly. Izzy's parent's room was just up the hall from the doorway to the den, so Izzy had to pass it to raid the fridge. Usually, the door was shut tight, but that night, of all nights, it was cracked open enough for Izzy to hear what was going on inside:  
  
"I really don't think that this is the time to tell him..." his father insisted "Think of what an effect it would have on him!"  
  
"But what about the effect NOT telling him will have?" his mother cried "He'll find out on his one eventually, he's to smart not to! And then what? What will he think of us if we knows what we've been hiding? That-"  
  
"Honey, he's a very mature boy!" his father reminded her "And he'll get even more mature over time. When he's old enough, he'll understand!"  
  
Suddenly, Tentomon rolled over and brought Izzy back to reality with a start. He figured that he owed the Digimon for the favor. That particular night was one best not to dwell upon.  
  
Sora quietly wandered around the halls of the vast, imposing mansion, trying her best to keep track of where she was and how to find her way back. Earlier, before going to sleep, Biyomon had innocently remarked about how their room could have benefit from having some flower arrangements.  
  
"I know, I bet my Mom would have a field day with this place..." Sora absent mindedly remarked.  
  
"Does she like flowers?" Biyomon asked.  
  
"Are you kidding?" Sora laughed "She LOVES them! That's her job, doing floral arrangements."  
  
"That sounds like fun!" Biyomon yawned "I bet she likes it..."  
  
"Yeah..." Sora agreed, suddenly less cheerful "In fact... they're her whole life..."  
  
Biyomon was fast asleep when Sora left, to caught in her thoughts to rest. At first, she was just wandering for the sake of wandering, but the dark, unsettling nature of the mansion had driven her to seek a window or something. Finally, she came across a balcony overlooking the river.  
  
The view was hardly serene, as the terrifying destruction that surrounded the building was still visibly through the darkness and the mist, but the cold air was at least somewhat refreshing. After a moment of savoring the breeze, Sora realized that she wasn't alone.  
  
To her right, not far above, Matt was perched on the edge of another balcony.  
  
It wasn't that far, but Matt seemed totally unaware of Sora's presence. Instead, she was caught up in playing softly on his harmonica. Sora vaguely recalled hearing him play it before, when they were all spending the night in that street car (funny how long ago that seemed), but this was the first time she'd ever heard it clearly.  
  
The tune, or whatever you wanted to call it, didn't seem to be any particular song. It seemed to constantly slide around from key to key, rhythm to rhythm; almost like skipping around on a CD from one track to another. As soon as Sora thought she'd figured out the basic melody, Matt would change it. After a few minutes, she grew weary of listening to him fumble around with notes and began to go back in side, but then, abruptly, Matt stopped.  
  
For a second, Sora worried that he had realized he was being watched, but he still see her. Instead, he simply held the harmonica in his hands and seemed to be considering something. Then, he took a somewhat deep breath...  
  
And began to sing.  
  
Somehow, Sora had never even considered that Matt could be much of singer, seeing how quiet he usually was. Yet his voice turned out to be absolutely beutiful. Quietly, softly, portrayed an emotion that he never would exhibit in normal speech as he delivered a dark, chilling set of lyrics over a haunting melody only enhanced by his voice:  
  
Seen the arrow on the doorpost  
  
Saying, "This land is condemned  
  
All the way from New Orleans  
  
To Jerusalem."  
  
I traveled through East Texas  
  
Where many martyrs fell  
  
And I know no one can sing the blues  
  
Like Blind Willie McTell  
  
Well, I heard the hoot owl singing  
  
As they were taking down the tents  
  
The stars above the barren trees  
  
Were his only audience  
  
Them charcoal gypsy maidens  
  
Can strut their feathers well  
  
But nobody can sing the blues  
  
Like Blind Willie McTell  
  
See them big plantations burning  
  
Hear the cracking of the whips  
  
Smell that sweet magnolia blooming  
  
See the ghosts of slavery ships  
  
I can hear them tribes a-moaning  
  
Hear the undertaker's bell  
  
Yeah, nobody can sing the blues  
  
Like Blind Willie McTell  
  
There's a woman by the river  
  
With some fine young handsome man  
  
He's dressed up like a squire  
  
Bootlegged whiskey in his hand  
  
There's a chain gang on the highway  
  
I can hear them rebels yell  
  
And I know no one can sing the blues  
  
Like Blind Willie McTell  
  
Well, God is in heaven  
  
And we all want what's his  
  
But power and greed and corruptible seed  
  
Seem to be all that there is  
  
I'm gazing out the window  
  
Of the St. James Hotel  
  
And I know no one can sing the blues  
  
Like Blind Willie McTell *  
  
Then, as suddenly as it begun, the song stopped and Matt began playing again like nothing had happened. Only then did Sora realized how strangely entranced she had become. With a bit of a shiver, she decided that the air was getting a bit too cold for her taste and wandered back to her room.  
  
Matt remained totally unaware that there had ever been anyone else outside other than him and remained for some time. After all, he could barely sleep in a wonderfully cozy place, how was he supposed to doze of in this horror movie reject?  
  
"You're definitely the most uncooperative of them aren't you?" an unfamiliar voice rang out from behind. In a flash, Matt whirled around to find a strange girl standing next to him. Well, it looked like a girl, at least. She was dressed in a plain, dark red dress and was clutching a silvery staff. But her sink was extremely pale and her pupils were just as white. Strangest of all were two wings that seemed to sprout out of her back and drooped straight down to the ground.  
  
"Who are you?" Matt demanded.  
  
"I don't have time for this." she sighed "You all should have been asleep hours ago."  
  
"Why?" Matt asked unconsciously.  
  
"You'll find out in good time." she assured him, holding her right hand out before him "Sleeping Wave."  
  
Matt tried to say something else, but as soon as the worlds left the girl's lips, he began to tire quickly. Suddenly, Matt realized that this was a trap. Somehow, Devimon must have figured out that they were here and sent this girl to incapacitate them. Of course, there was nothing he could do about it now. Matt collapsed unceremoniously to the floor, in a sleep as deep as his companions'  
  
Looking down at the helpless human, Pandoramon felt a wave of guilt like she hadn't in many years. She usually didn't come face to face with any of the victims. Usually, she was quite comfortable in Infinity Mountain, some distance from where the devices of her invention were going about doing Devimon's business. Up close, it was far more difficult to rationalize it. For a moment, she genuinely regretted sending this unfortunate soul to Devimon. But then reality set in: He would have found them any way. She was only allowing it to happen quickly.  
  
With one last, pained look at the fallen boy, Pandoramon left to signal Devimon  
  
Additional Song Credits:  
  
* "Blind Willie McTell"  
  
by Bob Dylan  
  
from the album The Bootleg Series: Volume Three by Bob Dylan  
  
To be continued... 


	10. The Truth Will Set You Free, If It Doesn...

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book One  
  
Chapter Ten  
  
It is a round about that I can't leave  
  
I circle for decades  
  
Only to find obscurity  
  
My life is haunted by young devilry  
  
I hear your voice  
  
On my stereo  
  
Lost in to the Night  
  
Brutal kids of the promised future  
  
Cut the highways  
  
With shards of truth  
  
I call out to my young and black hearted  
  
Do you believe in what I have seen?  
  
I heard your voice  
  
On my stereo  
  
Lost in to the night  
  
Do you believe in what I have seen?  
  
"Homage"  
  
by Kevin Allen, Neil Busch, Conrad Keely, and Jason Reece  
  
from the album Source Tags & Codes by And You Will Know Us by The Trail Of Dead  
  
Chapter Ten  
  
The Truth Will Set You Free, If It Doesn't First Drive You Insane  
  
The Digimon who inhabited Systems Canyon were renowned across File Island for being a surly bunch, not given too much in the way of courtesy or subtlety. Given the highly dangerous nature of their livelihood, they had to be quite resilient to survive, but it could make them less than pleasant conversationalists. If you ran into a miner or merchant down in that mile deep trench that had something he wanted to say to you, he didn't water it down or wait until it was appropriate to let you know about it. Fortunately, few Digimon in Systems Canyon truly cared about the dealings of others to actually comment on it often anyway (it was a good thing because, with their tact and refinement, the canyon would overflow with homicides if they did for very long). It took something very out of the ordinary to get these Digimon worked up.  
  
Something like, say, a boatload of travelers from beyond File Island trying to invade Infinity Mountain.  
  
That was the kind of news that spread quickly and didn't go away for a while after it popped up. Not necessarily for the "beyond File Island" part, Systems Canyon often saw travelers from other parts of the Digiworld; but trying to sneak into Infinity Mountain? There wasn't a Digimon to be found in the Canyon who wasn't at least thinking about it. Those closer to the mouth of the canyon could afford to just scoff when it was mentioned, but the farther along the Canyon (and further into Devimon's stronghold) you went, the more seriously the Digimon became. By the time you got to the Happy Bukamon tavern, the farthest establishment down Systems Canyon and a mere fifteen miles from the foot of Infinity Mountain, the denizens were practically frantic.  
  
"I'm tellin' ya, whoever those fools are, they must be stoned out of their minds!" Declared a particularly tipsy Nanimon to his drinking buddies  
  
"Complete idiots, ya know?"  
  
"I don't know about that" commented the Knightmon across the table from him "If what everyone is saying is true, the seem to be a good deal more intelligent that the past crusaders this island's seen."  
  
"What are you talking about?" scoffed a Psychemon at the table next to them  
  
"They're trying to attack DEVIMON, remember?"  
  
"Well, yes" Knightmon conceited "Just bear with me for a moment. Whenever any other band of Digimon with a Digidestined complex has tried to take on Devimon what do they do?"  
  
"Die." Nanimon belched.  
  
"I mean before that part." Knightmon pressed.  
  
"Well, they usually trek right up to the outer perimeter." answered a Mudfrigimon nearby.  
  
"Yeah." agreed Psychemon " `Cause they think they've got destiny on their side or something like that."  
  
"Then they die." Nanimon added.  
  
"Yes they do, that's my point." Knightmon explained "Whoever these new fellows are, they've got a very solid plan of attack going for them so far. I mean, look at us! If we went up to the surface right now, we'd be over thirty miles into the heart of Devimon's stronghold without so much as smelling a Black Gear!"  
  
"So they'll die in the middle of File Island instead of near the middle, huh?" Nanimon grunted "Yep, they're frickin' geniuses all right."  
  
"Yeah, and what'll happen when Devimon get's through with them, huh?" Psychemon asked "He'll wanna find out how they got so far into this stronghold and then he'll come down here to find out!"  
  
"There've been attempts at insurrections before this one and he's never broken his agreement with the miners." Knightmon insisted.  
  
"Yeah, but as you so aptly pointed out," Mudfrigimon replied "they were all on the surface. It won't take long for Devimon to figure out that they came through Systems Canyon; and when he does, he'll think we've turned against him."  
  
"And even if he doesn't, he'll figure that leaving us alone down here is too big a security risk." Psychemon added "He'll probably decide to start sending some Black gears down here too."  
  
"Don't be ridiculous." Knightmon scoffed, trying not to consider such a disturbing possibility "He needs us down here to work the mines in order to make the Gears in the first place!"  
  
"Well, I'm sure he'll keep a few of us without gears living in the mines - PERMINATELY - where we won't be a risk to security." Psychemon sighed.  
  
"He wouldn't!" Knightmon insisted, more to himself than anyone else.  
  
"Wouldn't you?" Psychemon countered.  
  
Knightmon chose not to answer that question; instead lifting his glass up in the dark, dusty air and proposing a very melancholy toast "Well, here's hopping that they're not as crazy as we all think they are."  
  
No one shared Knightmon sentiments, but they all drank anyway.  
  
****************************  
  
Pandoramon had had a dream once that she was in a giant building that she had apparently designed herself. Not just a nice sized house, mind you; this dream building was almost a city unto it's self. She might have considered trying her hand at designing a real-life equivalent when she woke up if that was all there had been to the dream, but it went downhill very quickly. Presumably, the whole structure was supposed to be brand new, but when she went inside, everything looked like it had been left to fall apart for years. What was worse, someone had apparently not followed her blueprints when they mapped out the halls, because nothing led to where she thought it would. As a result, she spent hours (well, the dream made it seem like hours) wandering lost in her own building. Then the whole place turned into her old bedroom and a group of Shellnumemon tried to feed her a sock, at which point she woke up. She didn't have any idea what the dream meant (especially that last part), but her current assignment had made her think about it anyway.  
  
Not that she would admit it, but Pandoramon would have rather dwelt on that dream, or any other dream, or anything else period, than continue to think about the bizarre task Devimon had charged her with.  
  
The plan for capturing the Digidestined had been as simple as it was brilliant and had worked perfectly. Without so much as lifting a finger, Devimon had all the humans, their Digimon partners, and their accomplices Centaurmon and Unimon in his grasp. In barely a minute, he could have crushed their heads in and have done with this whole ordeal, but he didn't.  
  
In fact, he wasn't doing anything.  
  
Oh, he had all his servants quite busy, of course; rebuilding the winding caverns of Infinity Mountain almost beyond even Pandoramon's recognition. It was quite disorienting to walk down the same hallways he had for years before and end up somewhere else entirely, and she was already uneasy enough as it was. This whole plan simply didn't make sense! Rather than doing anything himself, Devimon was having his minions turn Infinity Mountain into a massive, booby trapped holding cage with all but one entrance blocked. Once work was finished, he planed to have the seven humans dropped randomly into the labyrinth and hope they all stumbled to their deaths. As for the Digimon...Well, he just told her to be patient again.  
  
It was just so frustrating to try and make sense of! After all, Devimon was more powerful than all the Digidestined put together, right? Why would he go so far out of his way to avoid a direct confrontation? And even, just for the sake of an argument, if he wasn't strong enough, what good would this so-called plan do him? Even if the humans were at one end of the mountain and the Digimon at the other, the Digivices would still detect the peril of their bearers. There was just some step in this equation that Pandoramon didn't get.  
  
Unless, of course, the problem was that she was getting it more than she wanted to.  
  
There was that little voice again, getting more and more troubling with every minute. What if Devimon really didn't know what to do and was panicking? What if the plan didn't make any sense because there wasn't one that did?  
  
Once again, Pandoramon stopped herself before she had a chance to dwell on that thought. It simply wasn't a possibility, not by a long shot. There was no way Devimon could have been in contact with The Darkness and not have planed for this situation. Right?  
  
"Mistress Pandoramon?" Kokuwamon, Pandoramon's assistant, piped up from behind "Teams Seven and Eighteen are finished in sector twenty four. Should I have them join up with team Nine?"  
  
"Yes, that would be fine." Pandoramon blurted curtly, waving him off so she could think "Go and take care of it."  
  
"Yes, Mistress." Kokuwamon replied, bowing as he turned to go.  
  
"Uh...Kokuwamon, wait!" Pandoramon called before he'd had a chance to go very far.  
  
"Was there something else, Mistress?" he asked.  
  
"Well, um...Sort of. II was just wondering what you though of this operation." she explained. Kokuwamon was one of the few remaining Digimon in a position of any importance who's mind hadn't been dulled by a Black Gear. If she was going to get an intelligent second opinion from anyone, it would be him.  
  
"Um...What is there to think?" Kokuwamon muttered, looking like she'd asked him to grow a small tree from his head and dance around "It's what Devimon had commanded. What else is there to know?  
  
"I know, I know." Pandoramon replied, choosing her words carefully, as not to sound treasonous "All I mean is, our Master has kind of left us in the dark as to his reasoning behind this whole thing, hasn't he?"  
  
"Why would you say that?" Kokuwamon asked, still looking puzzled.  
  
"I mean...Um, that is to say" Pandoramon stuttered "I'm just saying that we really haven't been told why were going through all this trouble."  
  
"To get rid of the intruders, of course." Kokuwamon answered.  
  
"No, that's not what I mean!" Pandoramon sighed, exasperated. Maybe Kokuwamon wasn't the best pick for an intelligent second opinion after all.  
  
"Well, what in the Digiworld do you mean?" Kokuwamon asked, getting a bit exasperated himself.  
  
"Why is Lord Devimon disposing of the humans like this?" Pandoramon nearly shouted "Why can't he simply take care of them himself? Wait...I mean why won't he...Anyway, do you get what I mean now?"  
  
"Not really." Kokuwamon confessed, looking a little concerned "You of all Digimon should know that Lord Devimon doesn't have to explain himself to anyone. Our place is only to obey. Was there anything else?"  
  
"No...You may go." Pandoramon sighed, at a loss. She had been using that very argument on herself since these questions started bothering her, but coming from someone else they just seemed so...so wrong. Pandoramon had come to follow Devimon in the first place because she didn't want to be around that kind of thinking anymore. She'd left her home, not to mention any chance to re-enter the society of File Island, and come to Infinity Mountain because, to her, Devimon represented her independence: independence from her elders, independence from their customs, independence from life in general! She'd left everything to be a part of Devimon's movement because it meant her independence. It meant that she'd be able to decide things completely on her own. It meant that, for once, she'd finally be happy. But Kokuwamon's words, well intended as they might have been, seemed to shatter that whole vision. Those were not words that could have come from someone with the same convictions as Pandoramon, yet she couldn't have come up with a Digimon more dedicated to the cause than Kokuwamon. That was the problem, and that damned little voice wouldn't let her ignore it. Could she have come so far and done so much only to wind up exactly where she'd started? Could her whole life have been spent on something that didn't really exist? It couldn't be; it just couldn't!  
  
Kokuwamon had long left the map room where Pandoramon was working, so there was no one around to see her collapse in a pool of utter despair; feeling more lost than she'd ever thought possible.  
  
****************************  
  
It was quite humorous, really; if complete and total disaster could be called such. Certainly, if this had happened to anyone else, Devimon would have had a laughing fit. But it hadn't, and he wasn't. For almost more years than he could count, Devimon had been The Darkness' hand in the Digital Word; it's high priest, almost. It had showed him how to create the Black Gears, how to control File Island, it had told him everything.  
  
At least, it had felt like everything at the time.  
  
Now, of course, Devimon could look back and honestly wonder how in the Digital World he could have been so stupid. Was there really a notion in his head that he might someday posses all of the knowledge of The Darkness? He wasn't sure if it was actually the idiocy that astounded him of the outright egotism of it. He was still a Digimon after all; the most powerful of all Digimon to be sure but a Digimon nonetheless. As if his primitive mind could ever handle all of the wisdom of The Darkness. But no, he had puttered along like a fool assuming that he didn't have to make any plans of his own because they would all be made for him. And look where it got him.  
  
The Digidestined had fallen right into his lap and he had no idea what to do with them.  
  
Since right after the humans appeared on File Island, The Darkness had become less and less forthcoming; being evasive and changing the subject often. Now it would barely acknowledge his presence at all, and gave virtually no pertinent advice at all when it did. Despite his frustration, however, Devimon knew better than to outright demand answers from The Darkness.  
  
This whole situation really wasn't new to Devimon at all. On many previous occasions, during his sessions with The Darkness, the battle against the Digidestined came up and the topic always changed very quickly. Never mind about that now, it would say, take care of the job that is before you now; and, of course, he would do so without question. Well, there was that one time, when he had only just started serving The Darkness, that he pressed the matter.  
  
It only happened once.  
  
Technically, it didn't shout at Devimon because The Darkness didn't communicate with him using sounds, but thoughts. The words, or images or whatever the case may be, just showed up inside his head. It was like being in the middle of a dream where you suddenly wind up someplace different than where you were a second ago. You notice afterwards that the surroundings are different, but you don't ever notice anything actually changing. That's how it was most of the time, but not then. That time The Darkness seemed to explode inside Devimon's mind like...Well, like nothing he'd ever encountered before or since. Even after all that time, it still hurt Devimon's head to think about it. Of course, it wasn't as if he hadn't deserved it. Who was he to tell The Darkness what to do? It would give Devimon his instructions when the time came.  
  
One would have though that, after all that time, Devimon would have realized at some point that that time was not going to come.  
  
It was so obvious in retrospect: this was a test. It had to be. Only a Digimon with the strength to defeat the Digidestined would be worthy of ruling the Digital World in The Darkness' name; and, of course it wouldn't be a fair test if The Darkness intervened. And besides, what use would The Darkness have of a mindless drone? In retrospect, it all made perfect sense.  
  
If only he'd seen it coming before now.  
  
"Now" Devimon laughed bitterly to himself "Of all the times for the Digidestined to arrive...So many years in which this test could begin and it had to happen NOW"  
  
But there was no point in worrying about that at the moment. Now there wasn't time to make plans, to weigh options, there was only time to act; so he did.  
  
And now here they were.  
  
Lying unconscious before him, the seven pitiful creatures looked like they couldn't be a decent threat to a single Numemon, much less the great Devimon. But he knew better than to judge on appearances alone. It was a good thing to; after what happened when they tried to remove the Digivices. It would take a long time to remove all the burn marks from the chamber walls. It looked like he would have to throw the humans into the maze with the Digivices on them. Obviously, this made the whole idea of the boobytrapped labyrinth relatively pointless, but he was out of ideas. All Devimon could do was put as much distance between those Digivices and the Digimon as he could and hope that they wouldn't be triggered by the "accidental" danger. He knew quite well that it was a long shot, but what else could he do?  
  
At that moment, Ogermon, Leomon, and Pandoramon entered Devimon's chambers together.  
  
"Man, those guys sure are ugly!" Ogermon belched, poking the littlest one with his club.  
  
"Don't touch them, Ogermon." Leomon admonished quietly "You saw what happened to the others."  
  
"Come on, those things only made with the laserbeams `cause they tried to take `em away!" Ogermon replied.  
  
"Still, it would be a waste of resources if you were destroyed before the operation had a chance to begin." Leomon continued.  
  
"There's no time to play with them anyway." Devimon interrupted "You all have work to do."  
  
"Right!" Ogermon concurred eagerly "When do we get to bash `em?"  
  
"You don't, you scab-covered buffoon." Devimon replied "Place them in the maze and wait for them to wake up."  
  
"HUH?" Ogermon shouted "Come on! What'd we go through all the trouble of getting `em for if we don't get to bash `em?"  
  
"We should be able to destroy them very quickly, my Lord." Leomon concurred  
  
"It would be a simple manner."  
  
"ARE YOU TWO QUESTIONING MY ORDERS?" Devimon snapped angrily.  
  
"GAAAAAAH!!!!!!! NONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ogermon shrieked, cowering like a frightened rookie.  
  
"We are only seeking the manner in which we may best serve you, master." Leomon explained.  
  
"The way you may best serve me is the was I tell you to." Devimon hissed coldly "And I tell you clowns that you are not to touch the humans."  
  
"OK, but why?" Ogermon continued stupidly.  
  
"The Digivices will detect any physical danger to their bearers and trigger the digivolution process." Pandoramon explained, quietly.  
  
"Hey, is sommthin' the matter with you?" Ogermon asked, getting much closer to Pandoramon than she would have ever liked "You look even paler than usual."  
  
"I'm fine." Pandoramon curtly replied without looking at him "Get away from me."  
  
"What's the matter, cutie?" Ogermon snickered, tussling her hair with his large, muck-encrusted fist "You still get nervous when a Digimon as good lookin' as me gets too close?"  
  
"Don't touch me, you disgusting, conceited monstrosity." Pandoramon replied sickly, trying to push Ogermon away. Of course, he refused to budge; instead pulling her even closer to him.  
  
"What's the matter, string bean?" he laughed "You usually got a lot more fight in ya' than this!"  
  
"Let me go, you creep!!!" she screamed, trying to kick him hard enough for it not to simply tickle.  
  
"Oh, come on, you oughta know me better than that by now!" Ogermon snickered. Fortunately for Pandoramon, Devimon had little patience for Ogermon's antics.  
  
"There's no time for your juvenile pranks right now, Ogermon." he declared "You've got to get these humans into the labyrinth."  
  
"Awww man, just when I was getting good, to" Ogermon whined, looking away just long enough for Pandoramon to jab him square in the eye with her staff.  
  
"OWW!!!" he wailed, letting her go to rub the wounded eye "Why I oughta pluck your wings one feather at a time!"  
  
"Not before I tear every one of your scabs off." Pandoramon shot back, her large, white eyes burning with a mix of fear, rage, and disgust.  
  
"Neither of you will have a chance to do anything to anyone if you don't get to work now!" Devimon shouted.  
  
"All right fine!" Ogermon sighed, scooping up several of the Digidestined in his arms "Where do you want `em?"  
  
"Put them far enough apart that they can't find each other." Devimon explained "Preferably close to a good selection of traps."  
  
"It shall be done as you ask, master." Leomon replied, taking the rest out after Ogermon.  
  
"Very well, come with me." Devimon said to Pandoramon, turning to the transmitter room. He figured it couldn't hurt to ask just one more time  
  
If Devimon had noticed that Pandoramon was troubled, he didn't show it. Instead, he simply told her to start up the transmitter like he had a thousand times before. And, even if he did, he never could have known just how troubled she really was. Twice, during the start up procedure, Pandoramon forgot the passcodes: passcodes she'd written herself. But she simply couldn't concentrate on anything right now, it felt like the whole Digiverse was about to collapse around her. Devimon had been more than simply a leader to her, he had been her idol, she would do anything for him; and suddenly she was no longer sure why. Pandoramon wanted more than anything to just forget everything she'd thought for the past week and go back to life as usual, but something inside her simply wouldn't let her stop thinking about it. Devimon was making a mistake. She knew it, but she was expected to obey anyway.  
  
They were the most frightening moments Pandoramon had ever known.  
  
The again, now that she was in the transmitter room, there was still a glimmer of reassurance. No matter how much that little voice might want her to doubt Devimon, there was always The Darkness. Pandoramon knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that something was sending thought waves through the transmitter to Devimon. What was more, the Black Gears were totally beyond all the science Pandoramon had ever encountered, he had to have been given the designs from something far more advanced. Devimon couldn't be wrong if he was following The Darkness' directions, could he? Still, try as she might, Pandoramon simply couldn't bring herself to accept that all these problems would work out in the end. What possible plan could The Darkness make out of this near chaos?  
  
Again, the temptation to ask The Darkness herself reared its head. This time, she didn't brush it aside so easily. If The Darkness was in fact an intelligence beyond that of Digimon, and all evidence showed it was, then the only way to truly figure out what it was up to would be to ask it herself. But true as that might be, there was still the impossibility of actually trying it. After all, what if The Darkness told Devimon what she'd done? If he found out, what he'd do to her would make Ogermon's tormenting actually look like a show of affection. Besides, there was still the fact the machine was designed to interface with Devimon and Devimon alone. There was no way to know what would happen if she tried to force the mechanism to comply with her thought patterns. It was simply too risky.  
  
The beeping of her console brought Pandoramon back to reality: Devimon was finished with his conversation, whatever it was. As usual, he came out silent and bothered.  
  
"Does my lord have any new orders?" she asked, already sure of the answer.  
  
"No." Devimon replied quietly "Everything is proceeding as it must."  
  
"I see." Pandoramon sighed; she was afraid of that.  
  
"Let's go." Devimon muttered, making his way out of the transmitter room "The humans should be deposited by now."  
  
As he slowly paced through the corridors of Infinity Mountain, Devimon couldn't help but dwell on the ironic timing of this whole situation. To think that he would be cut off from The Darkness on the eve of the greatest revelation it could give  
  
Most everyone in Devimon's company knew that he didn't share everything he received from The Darkness with them, but they could never have guessed just how much. Even Pandoramon, who fancied herself an expert on just about everything, was completely unaware of some of The Darkness' greatest wonders. Of course, how could they possibly know about things that had yet to occur?  
  
More than a few of Devimon's followers, and even some of his enemies, assumed that The Darkness simply gave Devimon visions of the future all the time and that was how he had achieved so much. However, this was far from the truth and there really was little need for such divining. The simple minded fools of File Island greatly overestimated themselves if they felt that it required an intimate knowledge of the future to outsmart them. Still, there were rare occasions when The Darkness did in fact perceive images from the future and relay them to its servant. Devimon didn't pretend to have even a remote understanding of exactly how it accomplished this when it did, despite asking once. The Darkness had "answered" by describing a number of waves with holes cut in them and a flashlight pointed at them. Every so often, it said, all the holes and the flashlight line up so that the beam of light shines through them all and can be seen by some one on the other side. Devimon hadn't the faintest clue how this explained anything, in fact The Darkness might have been joking just to get him to shut up, but it didn't really matter. The point was, roughly every eight years or so, The Darkness could grant any individual in contact with it a vision of it's future. It was anything but an exact science from what Devimon had gathered, these seemed to be no was of determining in advance just what (or, more accurately, when) the individual would actually see and the chances of correctly interpreting the images were slim at best. The only thing Devimon had found he could be sure of was that the visions always foretold an extremely important event in the viewer's life. They certainly had in his case, at least.  
  
The first time The Darkness had ever shown Devimon the future was back on Server, before Myotismon had discovered the rift in Digital Space. In those days, Devimon could simply walk right up to the black tear in the sky, as Digital Mages, conjurers, and scientists had in the long past days before the war with The Dark Masters. Since that ancient time, the location of the rift had been lost, and the tales of it reduced to legend. Thankfully, Devimon was one of the rare Digimon who could hear its call and wandered the great deserts of Server to find it and hear The Darkness' wisdom. In that first vision, Devimon had seen massive walls being built around the rugged, barren mountains where the rift was located; walls he had latter seen built with his own eyes when Myotismon discovered the rift himself. Devimon would have been quite unsettled when Myotismon banished him from going near the rift if he had not received a second vision before hand. He was in a large room with some kind of multi-tendriled device coming out of the ceiling. Somehow, this thing that had nearly wrapped it's self around his head, was allowing him to communicate with The Darkness as clearly as if he was right in front of it. And there, in the corner of the room, he saw a thin, frail-looking little Digimon with a pair of limp, dragging wings on her back who seemed to be the one running the whole contraption. Obviously, no one could deny that that particular vision had come about exactly as he had seen.  
  
But dwelling on such things was pointless now. The Darkness had made a decision, and it was useless for Devimon to think about questioning it. What he had to do now was figure out how to deal with the Digidestined.  
  
"Everything is prepared, my Lord" Pandoramon declared, taking a quick look at one of the numerous consoles in the command chamber that displayed information on the makeshift dungeon "All of the humans are in their designated drop off points. They should be waking up at any moment."  
  
"Very good." Devimon sighed "I want everything that happens down there to be monitored as precisely as possible. Those humans cannot make it anywhere near the top of this mountain!"  
  
"Understood, my Lord!" several of the Digimon milling about the room replied in unison.  
  
"Is there anything in particular you would like me to do?" Pandoramon inquired softly.  
  
"Yes...There is" Devimon whispered, leading Pandoramon off to a more secluded corner of the room "But no one is to know about it. Not ANYONE, understand?"  
  
"Of course, master!" Pandoramon replied, confused "What is it?"  
  
"Go back to the transmitter room." Devimon whispered, almost inaudibly "I want you to make preparations to activate the Heracles Mechanism."  
  
"WHAT?" Pandoramon gasped, her already large eyes widening to the point that they threatened to engulf her whole face.  
  
"I don't want to take the chance of being caught unprepared if the Digidestined make it up here." Devimon quietly explained "If the time comes for it to be used, there won't be time for any start up procedures. It has to be ready to activate at a moment's notice."  
  
"But...I" Pandoramon stuttered, horrified at the thought "You know that I'm not sure if it will actually work. I'm not even sure how it's supposed to work! What if something-"  
  
"What if something goes wrong?" Devimon coldly interrupted "Do you think I don't know what I'm doing?"  
  
"NO!" Pandoramon almost shouted, suddenly very worried for her safety "I mean, I didn't-"  
  
"Oh, I see." Devimon coldly interrupted "You think that your little knack for tinkering with things has endowed you with enough wisdom to come up with a better plan than The Darkness. Is that it?"  
  
"O-Of course not, master...I was...It was only" Pandoramon stuttered, trying to back out from under Devimon's shadow only to find herself trapped in the corner.  
  
"Then I strongly suggest that you concentrate on the task before you and stop worrying about things that do not concern you." Devimon commanded, dragging one of his lengthy claws down the side of Pandoramon's pale face "Do otherwise and I might start to think that you were ignoring your duty."  
  
Pandoramon tried to make some kind of reply, but she was too horrified by the likely results of anything she could say to say anything. All she could do was tremble as Devimon's ghastly form lurched over her.  
  
" And I would hate to think that Pandoramon, of all Digimon, would forget her place," he hissed "being as very familiar with the consequences as she is."  
  
"I...I'm sorry" the terrified Digimon whimpered, cowering beneath her master "I just...I don't want anything that might endanger you"  
  
"So you decided to endanger yourself?" Devimon scoffed "You're smarter than that. Just get to work."  
  
"Y-Yes, my Lord." Pandoramon stuttered, hurrying out of the command chamber as quickly as she cold. She got back to the transmitter room quickly, but it was some time before her hands had stopped trembling enough to get to work.  
  
****************************  
  
The first thing Sora noticed was the smell, anything with a nasal cavity would have noticed it quickly. For some reason, the only thing that Sora's brain could drag up to describe it was "old"; most likely as in the oldest of old gym shorts. After gagging for a moment, Sora started to get up to see what was going on. That's when Sora actually realized that there was something wrong. For one thing, Sora didn't remember having so bad a headache the night before but she only go up a few inched before she woozily fell on her back again. It then became extremely clear that she wasn't in bed anymore, unless the mattress turned into a chunk of rock during the night.  
  
Oww...What happened? Sora thought to herself, rubbing the bump on her head Did I fall out of the bed?  
  
Sora opened her eyes to look around, then opened them again, and then opened them a third time without seeing a single thing.  
  
"Wha-What's going on?" Sora stuttered out loud, rubbing her eyes in the hopes that here eyes simply hadn't adjusted to the dark for some reason "It wasn't this dark before, what's going on? Biyomon? Biyomon, what's going on?"  
  
When the little Digimon, or anyone else for that matter, failed to reply, Sora begin stumbling blindly along the floor in search of...something; Sora didn't really care as long as she found something.  
  
"Come on, Biyomon, answer me!!!" Sora cried out "Tai? Matt? Mimi? ANYBODY? Where are you guys?"  
  
After franticly scrambling on her hands and knees for a few feet, Sora slammed face first into a wall. She quickly began to feel along the wall for a light switch or maybe the door out to the hall. It took almost a minute for Sora to finally notice that the hall she was hugging was completely different from those in the mansion. Everything in that house was made out of wood, elaborately carved wood at that. This wall, on the other hand, was nothing but a huge chunk of cold stone: stone that was uncomfortably similar to the boulders in the waterfall they had climbed up to get inside Infinity Mountain the day before.  
  
"Oh no...No no no no NO!!!" Sora whimpered, finally realizing that was going on. The last thing Sora remembered from the night before was finally going back to her room. Biyomon was still fast asleep, but it took Sora a while to nod off. She was pretty groggy at the time, but the last thing she remembered was a girl standing over her, waving her hand across Sora's face.  
  
"I guess you were right again, Matt" Sora moaned, quickly piecing everything together. Devimon must have found them and sent whoever-that-was to put them to sleep and dump them...where? Was this a cell? It was so dark that Sora couldn't see her own hand if she hit herself in the face, so she really had no idea. She was going to have to rely on feeling around to figure out what this place actually was. Of course, the thought of fumbling around blindly someplace that Devimon had put her didn't sit well with Sora at all.  
  
"Come on, Sora." she told herself, timidly "If Devimon really wanted to kill you, he would have done it last night while you were asleep." That lovely thought gave Sora a truly terrifying idea. What if she wasn't in Infinity Mountain at all? Maybe Devimon HAD killed her in her sleep!  
  
"No, no way!" Sora assured herself "If I were in Hell, it'd be a lot warmer than this; and if this is heaven, then heaven sucks!" With that little crises temporarily out of the way, Sora began feeling around again, very carefully. Even on her tiptoes, Sora couldn't feel a ceiling, so this was very tall whatever-it-was. And after going several feet to either side, she hadn't run into any corners, the wall just went on. After a little while, Sora decided she wasn't getting anywhere with that wall and decided she ought to see what was directly in front of her. Unfortunately, the rest of her body didn't take kindly to the idea of leaving the wall behind and wandering out into the dark.  
  
After a few minutes of doing absolutely nothing, Sora decided that wandering around totally terrified was slightly better than sitting around totally terrified, so she bravely ventured out into the pitch black. Well, as brave and one can be while inching along the floor in one's hands and knees.  
  
"This is so stupid" Sora quietly cursed, just so she could hear a human voice "This place could be the size of a few football fields for all I know! It'll take forever to get to the other side at this pace, and what good'll that do anyway? Of course, it's so dark in here I could just be going in circles. Yeah, that'd be great: lost in a giant empty room"  
  
Fittingly, Sora had barely got those words out of her mouth when she collided with the wall at the other side. Apparently, Sora's surroundings weren't much wider across than her living room, yet this wall seemed to go on as far as the one on the other side.  
  
"I wonder if this is some kind of a hallway." Sora muttered "Am I supposed to go someplace? How am I supposed to find my way that if I can't see anything?" At that, Sora had the morbid thought that she was being used like a mouse in a maze. After all, Devimon had already had Andromon chase them around that big factory just to see how they would react; was that same kind of thing happening again?  
  
"Oh, where are you Biyomon?" Sora whimpered, desperately longing for her companion's protection "If there is some other creep in here, how am I supposed to get away from it if I can't even see?" For another few minutes, Sora simply sat on the floor again, but eventually she got to anxious for that.  
  
"Well, if Tai or Matt was here, they'd say that it'd be harder for Devimon's thugs to find us if we kept moving." Sora decided, with a twisted grin "Then Tai would want to go left and Matt would want to go right and they'd probably try to have a fistfight even though they couldn't see a thing." Since she was already facing to the right, Sora slowly began to tiptoe down the pitch-black hallway. She only got a few steps before she almost fell into a hole right in the middle of the floor.  
  
"There, see?" Sora shouted to no one in particular "I knew that there would be a hole or something! I KNEW IT!!!...Oh no, I'm turning into Joe." Slowly, Sora made her way around the edges of the hole, which almost took up the whole floor. By some miracle, she managed to inch her way along the narrow edge, nearly giving herself a few heart attacks in the process. Quite a few bits or stone broke off under her feet and plummeted into the hole beneath her, taking a while to hit the bottom. At least Sora knew that the pit wasn't bottomless (she had seem far stranger things lately), but it sounded deep enough to bust her up considerably, if not kill her.  
  
"This is ridiculous; I can't even get across my own room in the dark. How am I supposed to get around giant holes popping up right in front of me?" Sora panted as she collapsed on the floor at the other side of the hole "I need some light in here. A flashlight, a light-up watch, heck I'd take a firefly! I just need to see where I'm going!!!" Needing a few more seconds to collect herself, Sora rolled over on her back. At least she got to her site when she practically impaled herself on the digivice in her pocket.  
  
"OWWWW!!!! For such a little thing, that hurts!!!" Sora groaned, getting more and more frustrated "So now I'm lost, I'm blind, AND I'm about break my digivice...Hey"  
  
OF COURSE!!! THE DIGIVICE!!! How could she have been so stupid? The digivice's screen was backlit! It wouldn't be a flashlight, but at least she would be able to see something. Sora dove into her pocket and franticly pulled out the little glowing device and, sure enough, the screen was pouring out light (at least, that's how it seemed to Sora at the moment). In fact, the whole thing actually seemed to be glowing, giving off twice the amount of light that Sora had expected. For a while, she just stared at the digivice, gleefully taking in the newfound illumination. That go old after a while, however, so Sora decided to check out her surroundings.  
  
As bright as the digivice seemed to be, it didn't do much to light up the hallway. It almost seemed like the air was eating up the light before it had a chance to get very far. Still, Sora was able to investigate her immediate surroundings. Fittingly enough, the floor and walls were black (what else?) and astoundingly plain. There were a number of dips and bumps in the surfaces, which Sora had figured out already when she tried to walk through them in total darkness, but nothing that seemed to suggest any intelligence behind it's construction, or any construction period. The pit that Sora had nearly fallen into, on the other hand, looked anything but natural. It was still too dark to the bottom, or even the other side, but the rough, sharp edges on her side looked as if they had been cut quite recently.  
  
"Well that's nice." Sora snickered to herself "They went through all the trouble of digging a brand new pit just for me! I hope there's not too many more of these things up ahead"  
  
Having seen all there was to see around the pit, Sora decided to get moving again. Sora covered considerably more ground than before now that she could at least see her feet. It was a good thing too, because there were, in fact, more pits to deal with. After making her way around two more that were sinfully close to each other, Sora suddenly found herself at an intersection with another hallway. For some reason, several large stones blocked the hall to her left, but the door to the right was wide open.  
  
"Um...Oh great, which way do I go now?" Sora sighed "OK, I'm pretty sure that both of these don't go the right way, whatever that is." Sora poked her head in the door to the right to take a look around, but couldn't make out any walls. Apparently, the new passage was much wider than the hall she was in. Sora stuck the digivice into the passage as far as her arm would reach in hopes that she might find something useful when she noticed something very unsettling going on with the digivice screen.  
  
During his little lectures on the nature of the digivice, Izzy had told the rest of the group that they were some kind of "danger sensor" that told the Digimon when they needed to digivolve. He had also pointed out the little rainbow-colored gauge on the Digivice screen. After a little experimentation during the group's first encounter with Unimon, Izzy had guessed that the gauge was intended to display any danger the bearer was in. Of course, no one in the group was interested in being deliberately placed in danger to test  
  
Izzy's hypothosis, so he couldn't be sure. Well, that little gauge, which usually took up only a little sliver at the bottom of the screen, had jumped up almost to the top when Sora stuck her arm through the door.  
  
"Uh oh, this is bad; VERY bad!" Sora stuttered, deciding that the hall she had been in was definitely a better idea. Sora really didn't need any extra incentive to get the heck out of that room, but she got it anyway when a VERY loud rumbling erupted from the darkness above her. Sora had barely managed to get her arm out of the doorway when what must have been the room of that room came crashing down to the floor, throwing her off her feet in the process.  
  
"Oh, wow...That was WAY too close" Sora gulped before kissing her digivice "If I ever said anything bad about you, you little hunk of plastic, I take it all back! Oh, and Izzy? You are a saint!"  
  
As Izzy wandered along the dark, maze like passages, there were plenty of things he could have been worrying about. He wasn't sure were he was, he didn't know where he was supposed to be going, he hadn't eaten in a very long time, and there were deadly booby traps all around him. However, Izzy's mind was focusing on only one thing: WHERE IN HEVEN'S NAME WAS HIS COMPUTER? When he woke up in this dank labyrinth, someone had absconded with his backpack and everything in it, including his laptop. Didn't this unscrupulous thief have any idea of the value of the information stored in that laptop? Ever since he arived in the Digital World, Izzy had kept an exhaustive record of everything he had seen and experienced. Even in as incomplete a state as it currently was, Izzy's record of the Digital World was the sort of thing most scientific minds would kill to put together. When he returned to Earth, Izzy had hoped to show his notes to some professors he knew and get their thoughts on digivolution and other such things. They probably wouldn't believe him, but he had already been away from Earth for roughly two weeks, so they wouldn't be able to deny that he'd been someplace. But how was he going to be able to prove where he had been if all his data was lost? Well, at least he'd had the sense to keep his digivice in his pocket. He was sure that quite a few engineers would have a field day with that. Besides, it was a safe bet that Izzy would be long dead if he didn't have his digivice with him.  
  
Izzy had remembered the lighting and danger sensing possibilities of the digivice very quickly, but figured that there had to be more to the device than just displaying a "danger gauge". After all, there were three large buttons on the front. Before, Izzy had been too afraid to mess with them, lest he make Tentomon blow up or something. Now, however, he didn't have anything better to do, so Izzy started fiddling around. The big button still didn't seem to do anything most of the time, but the two on the left of the screen seemed to select totally different functions for the digivice. He had no idea what most of them were, however, as they were covered up by a large, blinking red icon that seemed to be saying "NO". Izzy figured that these setting must have had something to do with Tentomon, so they probably wouldn't work if Tentomon wasn't around. There was also one setting that just brought up a big empty window. That setting didn't have any red icon, so it must have been working right, though what exactly it did was beyond Izzy. There was one setting, however, that proved to be working VERY well: a map.  
  
Well, not so much a map as a sonar. At the center of the screen was a dot that Izzy assumed represented him. Out of that dot pulsed waves of light that highlighted the walls of the passages around him. It was a bit confusing to read a first, but Izzy eventually figured out that the big button could be pushed around like the touch pad of a laptop to scroll around the map, giving him a heads up on any pits or blocked passages in his way. As useful as this function of the map was, Izzy was far more exited about a highly useful extra feature: six additional dots that were wandering around the halls as well. Apparently, each digivice had a built in homing mechanism that the other six could detect. Now he had at least some idea how to find his companions!  
  
Of course, just because Izzy knew where the others were, that didn't mean that he could get to them anytime soon. Most of the dots were some distance from his own, and the few that were nearby were in halls that were blocked off. Apparently, someone had hastily rebuilt these hallways to ensure that none of the unfortunate seven children would be able to come into contact with each other.  
  
Just as Izzy reflected on this, the nearest dot made an abrupt turn into the corridor to its left. That meant whoever it was was in the hall right next to him! In a rare moment of irrational behavior, Izzy ran to the wall separating the two and began pounding on it.  
  
"Hello! HELLO!" Izzy shouted "It's me, Izzy! Can you hear me?" Of course, whoever it was couldn't; the rock walls were far too thick. Izzy would need to find a better was to contact the other party. Of course! he thought, the dot was headed back in the direction Izzy had just come from, and he had just passed a blocked doorway between the two halls there! Izzy quickly ran to the blocked door to search for some kind of an opening. As he had feared, the slabs of stone were laying too close for anyone to squeeze though the cracks. However, there was still a chance that he could be heard though the small openings.  
  
"Hello? Can you hear me?" Izzy shouted through the largest crack (which wasn't much wider than a mail slot)  
  
"Izzy? Is that you?" a very young voice called back.  
  
"T.K.?" Izzy shouted back "Are you alright?"  
  
"Um, Yeah, I guess. I fell down a few times, so I'm kind of bruised, but that's all." T.K. answered "Is Matt with you?"  
  
"I'm afraid not." Izzy replied "You're the first person I've come into contact with, if you can consider this contact."  
  
"Yeah, why are so many of the doors all blocked like this?" T.K. asked.  
  
"Presumably to keep us from being able to find each other." Izzy figured "And they do an admirable job at it, I should say."  
  
"Yeah." T.K. agreed "So, um, how'd you find me?"  
  
"Our digivices seem to be able to track each other." Izzy explained "Click the top right button five times to see it."  
  
"Cool! It's a map!" T.K. shouted, obviously having found what Izzy was talking about.  
  
"Now if only we could find a way around all these blocked passages...I wonder" Izzy mussed. After glancing up into the darkness above, which he still had not been able to see clearly, Izzy tossed his digivice straight up above him with all his might. As he had hoped, the digivice made it all the way to the doorway before falling down. Unfortunately, Izzy over estimated both the illuminating nature of the digivice and his own eyesight. The upper half of the doorway was lit so briefly that he still had no idea if there was actually any way though up there or not. Well, at least now he was sure that the pile of rocks was over one story tall.  
  
"Izzy? Are you still over there?" T.K. called from the other side before Izzy had a chance to try again.  
  
"Yes, I was just testing a hypothesis." Izzy answered "I'm afraid it didn't work very well."  
  
"Oh, that was you?"  
  
"What was me?"  
  
"A second ago I saw a flash from the top of the door."  
  
"You saw that?" Izzy exclaimed "Then there is a way through up there! Now how am I supposed to get up there?"  
  
"Hold on!" T.K. shouted back. A moment latter, a digivice came flying through an opening at the top of the doorway and landed next to Izzy "Yeah, I fit through that!"  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute T.K.!" Izzy shouted "You're not going to try to climb up this thing are you?"  
  
"Sure!" T.K. replied "I used to do stuff like this all the time back home!"  
  
"T.K., I sincerely doubt that this is the same thing as one of those rock climbing walls." Izzy called back, nervously.  
  
"I'm not talking about those things." T.K. explained "Me and my friends would just climb up the apartment buildings."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"It's a lot of fun as long as the neighbors don't call the cops on you."  
  
"You're mother doesn't spend much time at home, does she?"  
  
"Not really, why?"  
  
"Never mind."  
  
"Uh, Izzy?" T.K. asked.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Can I have my digivice back? I can't climb if I can't see."  
  
"Oh, OK. Hold on, here it comes." Izzy replied. Unfortunately, it took him three or four tries before he actually got T.K.'s digivice back through the hole.  
  
"Man, Izzy." T.K. laughed "We gotta work on your pitching arm."  
  
"Well, it's not as if I've ever been much of a sportsman." Izzy replied, shaking his head.  
  
As T.K. was beginning his climb up one of the blocked doors, Tai was busy worming his way under another one.  
  
"There, see? THAT'S why I'm so skinny!" Tai laughed to no one in particular "Let's see a sumo wrestler try this!" In one final show of agility, Tai managed to pop himself out of the little space he was crawling through like a cork out of a bottle. It might have been an impressive display if he hadn't gotten his hair caught in one of the cracks in the process.  
  
"OOOOOOWWWW!!!!! DAMN IT!!!" Tai shouted as he carefully pulled his hair out of the crack. Once free, Tai looked around to make sure no one had seen by reflex (of course, even if someone had been there, they wouldn't have been able to see).  
  
"Well, let's see what's going on over here" Tai muttered as he began to stroll along the hall "Is anybody over here? Hello? HEY SOMEBODY? Anybody? Yoohoo. Hellooooooooooooo  
  
Is there anybody out there?  
  
Anybody there?  
  
Does anybody wonder?  
  
Anybody care?  
  
Oh, I just gotta know  
  
If you're really there  
  
and you really care  
  
`Cause baby I'm not f-f-f-foolin'"  
  
Tai managed to get through roughly half the Def Leppard before hearing any signs of life from the dimly lit halls:  
  
"ALL RIGHT, I HEAR YOU!!! WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP THAT AWFUL EXCUSE FOR NOISE?"  
  
"Oh, shut up you...hey wait a minute, who is that?" Tai shouted back.  
  
"Not your vocal coach, lucky for you!" the voice replied from afar.  
  
"Is that you Joe?" Tai asked, trying to figure out which direction to look.  
  
"Yeah, it's me Tai." Joe shouted "Where are you?"  
  
"How should I know?" Tai shot back "It all looks the same to me."  
  
"Well how am I supposed to find you if I don't know where you are?" Joe whined.  
  
"You've got ears, right?" Tai asked.  
  
"Just barely, thanks to you." Joe replied.  
  
"Well, we'll see about that." Tai snickered, taking a deep breath  
  
"Hey, Joe  
  
where are you going with that gun in your hand?  
  
Said, hey Joe,  
  
where you going with that gun in your hand?  
  
I'm going down to shoot my woman  
  
You know I caught her messin' round with some other man."  
  
"No, I'm gonna shoot you so you'll stop singing." Joe interrupted, sounding much closer this time. Sure enough, Tai strained to look in front of him and saw the faint light of a digivice rapidly nearing.  
  
"Am I dreaming, or is there actually another human being in this smelly dump?" Tai laughed.  
  
"Something like that." Joe replied, finally emerging from the darkness.  
  
"Nope, I'm definitely not dreaming." Tai quipped "If I was, I would have run into Mimi instead of you."  
  
"You know what?" Joe sighed "I was almost glad to see you for a second. Why'd you have to go and ruin it by actually being YOU?"  
  
"Well, you ruined my little fantasy by being you instead of Mimi, so why can't I return the favor?" Tai shot back.  
  
"Oh please, You'd have ruined your own fantasy, smart guy." Joe pointed out "We both know that if Mimi had been here you'd have blushed to your toes and started babbling like an idiot."  
  
"HEY, I ONLY DID THAT ONCE!!!. and that time at soccer camp." Tai shouted.  
  
"That's not the way Sora tells it!" Joe snickered.  
  
"W-W-WHAT? SHE PROMISED NOT TO TELL ANYBODY ABOUT THAT!!!"  
  
"Well, she didn't, but you just did!" Joe laughed.  
  
"AUGH!!!!! I SWEAR, JOE, IF DEVIMON DOESN'T KILL US ALL I'LL DO YOU IN MYSELF!!!" Tai screamed, exasperated "What's gotten into you all of a sudden anyway? That was witty, clever, and totally unlike you."  
  
"Oh, nothing." Joe explained "Matt, T.K., Mimi, and Gomamon just set up a pot to see who could get you to say something like that first."  
  
"Really? What's the winner get?"  
  
"Two of T.K.'s old Rice Crispy Treats and a Mr. GoodBar that Mimi was saving for a special occasion."  
  
"Man, I'd rat on myself for that! I haven't had anything sweet in over a week." Tai though aloud before returning to the immediate situation "Hey, let's see what's down that hall over there."  
  
"Wait a second!" Joe shouted, running up to the doorway and waving his digivice around inside.  
  
"What the heck are you doing?" Tai asked "Trying to exorcize a spirit or something?"  
  
"I'm checking to see if this place is safe." Joe explained "The digivices can detect danger, remember? Didn't you pay attention when Izzy explained it?"  
  
"Well, sort of" Tai lied, sheepishly.  
  
"Well how did you avoid the traps?" Joe asked, exasperated "I've nearly fallen into eight pits in the middle of the floor, had two ceilings almost fall on me, nearly been impaled by three spear thingies, and there were about a dozen more rooms that I didn't even go into to find out what was setting the digivice off!"  
  
"Well, I've got eyes, Joe." Tai replied "I can see holes in the floor."  
  
"And I suppose your hair holds up the ceilings?"  
  
"No, I just stayed away from the rooms that stink."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"You know, the smelly ones!" Tai repeated, thinking that it was a perfectly clear concept.  
  
"Tai, I don't know if you've noticed," Joe pointed out "but everything in here here stinks to high heaven."  
  
"Well, yeah, but this is different." Tai explained "Every time I've been up close to a Digimon with a Black Gear in him, it had this really funky smell to it. So, I figure that any rooms that smell like that can't be good. Right?"  
  
"Tai, that's so mindlessly stupid it's actually brilliant." Joe replied.  
  
"Thanks, I think." Tai muttered, turning his attention to the digivice "So, um, what do we do? Do we hit these buttons or something?"  
  
"NO WAIT!!!" Joe yelled "Even Izzy doesn't know what those are supposed to do!"  
  
"Hey, cool!" Tai exclaimed "Check this out! It's a map!"  
  
"Huh?" Joe started, looking at Tai's screen "How'd you do that?"  
  
"I dunno," Tai confessed "I just hit this top button a few times."  
  
"Look at those dots." Joe pointed out "Are those supposed to be us?"  
  
"Let's find out. Go down that hall some, Joe." Tai instructed "Yep, it looks like these are supposed to be us. That's pretty cool."  
  
"I was afraid of that, look at this." Joe replied, having set his digivice on the map as well "Most of the dots are moving around, but that one over there is just sitting still."  
  
"Uh oh." Tai chimed in "That doesn't look good. You think somebody fell down a hole?"  
  
"That could be it." Joe concurred.  
  
"No, wait a minute." Tai interrupted "Look, there was a big pit right by this place over here where I came in. See that big splotchy thing? It's right where the pit would be."  
  
"Hey, yeah. And up ahead of us over there is another pit right where that other spot is on the map. But I don't see anything like that around the still dot."  
  
"That's what I was talking about." Tai explained "That dot could move around if it wanted to. I wonder why it's not."  
  
"Oh, I don't know." Joe replied "There's only about five million deadly traps all over this place. For all we know-"  
  
"Ok, stop right there." Tai interrupted "The last thing I need to hear right now is Joe's daily doom and gloom report."  
  
"Alright, fine...Oh! I know!" Joe shouted "It's Mimi!"  
  
"Huh? How do you know?"  
  
"Well, after we got out of that big factory, Mimi was telling T.K. about being lost down in that big maze down there and he reminded her what the counselors back at camp told us to do when we got lost on the trails."  
  
"Oh yeah" Tai recalled "It was something like `find a place were you can be seen and stay put until someone comes to get you' right?"  
  
"Yeah, that's it. She's probably waiting for somebody to find her."  
  
"Well, she's in luck, `cause I see another dot just a little ways from her." Tai pointed out "I wonder who it is?"  
  
Matt had seen a lot of sloppy, slipshod things in his life, but a five-foot tall hole in a stone wall that was covered in black tape had to be up around the top five. The irony alone was something Matt doubted he would forget any time soon: he had just spent at least an hour trying to get through a doorway that was blocked up, giving himself several cuts in the process, and here was an opening that even a four-year-old could get through! Either Devimon has in a real hurry to get this little labyrinth finished or he had some major idiots working for him. Well, it didn't really matter; right now he had to find some way out, and that was going to be a real trick. Matt figured that he was currently wandering around somewhere inside Infinity Mountain (it was hard to imagine anyplace else that smelled so bad) which meant that Devimon was sitting somewhere above him. Now, if Matt were Devimon, he would never let a group of people who had come to destroy him go wandering around inside his lair unless there was absolutely no way for them to get out. Of course, if Matt were Devimon, he would have just killed everyone at the first chance he got, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. Apparently, Devimon was hoping that everyone would have an unfortunate accident or starve to death instead. Not exactly a more pleasant prospect, but it meant Matt was alive for the moment. Now there was at least a chance to get out alive.  
  
Matt didn't usually make a habit of looking on the bright side of things, but that was only because there usually wasn't one. However, over the past twenty-four hours or so, Matt had seen enough absolutely boneheaded moves on the part of Devimon to think that there really was at least a small chance of winning against him. The fact that they had managed to get inside Infinity Mountain at all was the first sign that Devimon wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, and now that they had been found and caught and were still alive, Matt was quite sure that the so-called tyrant was a complete idiot. Plus, judging from the "excellent" home repair work that Matt had just witnessed, most of the people who worked for Devimon seemed to be buffoons as well. Of course, Devimon could be a complete and total retard, but it wouldn't matter much if Matt never found a way to the top of Infinity Mountain and figured out what happened to the others.  
  
Fittingly, Matt nearly tripped over something lying on the floor as he thought that: something that turned out to be Mimi. For a second, Matt thought that the curled up girl was still asleep. After all, it had taken him a while to fully wake up from whatever that girl done to him back at the mansion. However, as soon as Mimi realized that someone else was there, she shrieked and bolted back a few feet.  
  
"WHO IS THAT?" Mimi demanded, clearly terrified.  
  
"Oh, nice to see you too, Mimi." Matt groaned, rubbing his ears; being near Mimi when she felt like screaming was bad for one's health.  
  
"Wha- Matt? Is that you?" Mimi stuttered, coming to her senses.  
  
"No, it's the boogey man." Matt sighed.  
  
"It IS you, Matt!" Mimi laughed, hugging him "I was afraid I'd never see another normal face again! Heck, I didn't think I'd see any face again!"  
  
"Well, now you have." Matt grunted, wiggling out of Mimi's grip "Though I was hoping that you had some of the others with you."  
  
"Sorry, I haven't seen anybody since we went to bed in the mansion." Mimi replied "Just what's going on?"  
  
"Oh, yeah. Like Devimon decided to give me a heads up on everything he's doing with us." Matt scoffed.  
  
"Come on!" Mimi pleaded, "You've got to have some idea what's happening. How'd we get...wherever we are?"  
  
"Well, I think it's obvious that we're still inside Infinity Mountain." Matt explained "Last night I ran into this weird girl in the mansion. Well, I guess she was actually a Digimon. Anyway, she put me to sleep and I woke up in here. I guess that she did it to everybody else too."  
  
"But I don't remember seeing anybody." Mimi interrupted "I just fell asleep and woke up right here. And where's Palmon?"  
  
"I don't know!" Matt groaned, why did she think he knew this stuff? "I guess they're wherever the rest of our stuff is."  
  
"Hey, yeah." Mimi interrupted, again, "Why do I still have my stupid Digivice but they took my suitcase?"  
  
"How should I know?" Matt curtly replied "That's just what happened! You don't need that stupid suitcase anyway!"  
  
"EXCUSE ME?" Mimi shouted, incredulously "I don't know if you noticed, but I am in my pajamas! Do you really expect me to walk around dressed like this?"  
  
"Mimi, this might come as a shock to you, but YES." Matt insisted "Since when do you have pajamas anyway? You usually just sleep in your clothes."  
  
"I usually sleep next to five guys too." Mimi pointed out "It's hard enough to get the privacy to change once a day."  
  
"Well, it's so dark in here you could probably walk around naked and no one would notice," Matt joked "so don't worry about it."  
  
"HONESTLY!" Mimi shouted, disgusted "You're worse than Tai!"  
  
"Hey, there's no need to be ugly about it." Matt said, walking on "Come on, let's go."  
  
"Go where?" Mimi asked.  
  
"I don't know, I left my map of the universe in the mansion."  
  
"I'm not going to go wandering around without any idea where I'm going!"  
  
"So you'd rather sit around alone for a while longer?"  
  
"Oh. that's no fair! Hold on!" Mimi pleaded, running to catch up with Matt.  
  
Pandoramon had been far too caught up in her troubled thoughts to bother shutting the door of the transmitter room. t really wasn't necessary, as there was nothing in the room that anyone else could comprehend, much less tamper with. Thus, she could hear quite clearly when Kokuwamon and Thundermon walked by and started talking about what was happening below them.  
  
"Hey, did you hear about the humans?" Thundermon began "They've only been down there for a few hours and they've already managed to start getting past the barriers!"  
  
"I know." Kokuwamon replied "I told Ogermon that he needed to put them farther apart!"  
  
"Ogermon's not the one you should have told." Thundermon pointed out "you should have told Devimon-"  
  
"What, that I had a better idea than the guy he'd put in charge?" Kokuwamon interrupted "I'm not an idiot, it was Ogermon's screw up!"  
  
"Well, yeah, I know." Thundermon consented "OH, speaking of screw ups, what's Devimon doing with team Twelve?"  
  
"I don't know, but he's still doing it!" Kokuwamon laughed "And those dopes deserve it! Covering the holes with tape? I don't care how much of a hurry they were in, that's just stupid!"  
  
"And, of course, now the humans actually have some openings to get up to the top levels of Infinity Mountain" Thundermon mussed "Hey, Kokuwamon?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Do you think it's true?"  
  
"Huh? What's true?"  
  
"You know what I mean."  
  
"What, that these clowns actually are the Digidestined?"  
  
"Um, yeah."  
  
"Oh, come on Thundermon!" Kokuwamon laughed "You've been out of the Primary Village a long time! You shouldn't be taking that stuff seriously!"  
  
"Yeah, but Devimon is sure taking these guys seriously." Thundermon replied "And they sure don't look like any Digimon I've ever seen."  
  
"So they're a new type of Digimon, that's not THAT out there." Kokuwamon insisted "Look, the Digidestined are just a dumb bedtime story like `The Lucky Mahoumon and Clockmon's Tower'; it's not real at all. Devimon's only taking these clowns more seriously than the other so-called "Digidestined" because he wants to find out what type of Digimon they actually are."  
  
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Thundermon agreed, before turning the conversation over to the cold showers in the locker room.  
  
Back in the transmitter room, with her hands buried in a mess of wires and gears under a floor panel, Pandoramon was wrestling with the very questions Thundermon was, plus fifty more. Just as she had feared, Devimon's plan was falling apart at the seams; and the more she tried to make sense of it, the more questions she had to deal with. On the one hand, Pandoramon wasn't stupid or blind: she could see exactly what was going on with the Digidestined, and it was obviously not a good thing. This whole scheme of Devimon's was doomed from the start and any Digimon with a brain should have known it. Yet, here it was in motion, if you could call it such. And what about the Heracles Mechanism, which she was trying to prepare at that very moment. If that thing was half as dangerous as Pandoramon feared  
  
On the other hand, there was always The Darkness. For years, Devimon had given Pandoramon plans, schematics and all other sorts of other things that were simply beyond anything any Digimon should have been able to come up with. For all Pandoramon knew, Devimon could simply be so far ahead of her that it seemed like he was going of the deep end. After all, Devimon couldn't be driving himself off a cliff if The Darkness was giving him directions, could he?  
  
That's where Pandoramon had a very unpleasant epiphany: she really had no idea what The Darkness was telling Devimon. If The Darkness really had chosen him to rule the Digital World, then it really didn't matter what Devimon was told. But how did Pandoramon know if that was really the case? That damned little voice that had given her so much grief was really out doing itself by this point: after questioning herself and then Devimon, now Pandoramon wasn't sure if The Darkness was telling Devimon the truth. She'd never had a conversation with it herself. In fact, no one other than Devimon had ever spoken with it. She only had his word that The Darkness was acting in his best interests, and if it was lying then that word wouldn't be worth much. What if Devimon was being lied to?  
  
What if The Darkness was intentionally leading Devimon down a path to destruction?  
  
With a sharp pain, Pandoramon realized that she had caught her finger in one of the gears again. Pandoramon cursed silently as she pulled her hand out and set that last gear right. It was the third time she'd got her hand in the wrong place while setting up a machine she used to be able to perform maintenance on in her sleep. This whole thing was driving her insane. If Devimon was really being misled, there was no way that Pandoramon could just sit by and let him be destroyed. But what could she do if she didn't know what The Darkness was up to?  
  
Quietly, Pandoramon finished her work on the Heracles Mechanism and walked out to the guard standing by the door to the transmitter room.  
  
"Are you finished?" the Mekanorimon's dull monotone voice asked.  
  
"Almost." Pandoramon lied "I need to seal off the chamber for a few minutes first."  
  
"What's going on?" Kokuwamon piped up from behind.  
  
"Huh?" Pandoramon replied, startled but hiding it admirably "Nothing's going on, why?"  
  
"Well, it's just that I don't see Devimon around anywhere." Kokuwamon answered, looking puzzled.  
  
"Of course" Pandoramon said cautiously "He's still off taking care of team Twelve."  
  
"Yeah, so why are you sealing off the transmitter?" Kokuwamon asked.  
  
"Oh, um, I'm just running a test on something." Pandoramon explained, thinking as quickly as she could "I'll need to run a lot of power through the transmitter's systems for it to work, so it'll need to be sealed off."  
  
"What?" Kokuwamon laughed "You don't need to power up the transmitter to run a diagnostic!"  
  
"First off," Pandoramon began, trying like mad to come up with a convincing cover story "you didn't build the transmitter, I did; so don't tell me how to run it. Second, I don't remember saying that I was running a diagnostic on the transmitter."  
  
"Well, what else would you be doing?" Kokuwamon asked.  
  
"Didn't Lord Devimon tell you?" Pandoramon asked back.  
  
"No." Kokuwamon answered, confused.  
  
"Oh! Well then, it must not be any of your business!" Pandoramon replied, figuring that she ought to put all that blind loyalty to use "All you have to worry about is what Lord Devimon has told you to worry about. Or do you have a better idea?"  
  
"N-No, of course not!" Kokuwamon stammered, a bit flustered at himself "I'm sorry, forget I asked."  
  
"No problem." Pandoramon replied "Now you get back to work."  
  
"Yes, mistress Pandoramon!" Kokuwamon shouted, already making his way back down the hall, before adding "I guess you got over that little question of faith thing, huh?"  
  
"I'm about to." Pandoramon whispered as the large doors slid shut behind her before quickly making her way over to the operations console and powering it up. It was very likely that the whole test snow job would take, but Pandoramon was still astoundingly nervous. After all, if just one person suggested to Devimon what she was planning  
  
No, she was having enough trouble concentrating as it was. The last thing Pandoramon needed was to be thinking about that. Kokuwamon was an idiot, he'd buy the story without question. And since that Mekanorimon was fitted with a Black Gear, Devimon just heard the story too. She had told him that the Heracles Mechanism would draw power straight from the transmitter, and just that morning she'd told him how afraid she was of doing something that might endanger him, so it seemed likely that Devimon wouldn't care if she activated it without him. Still, she would have to work quickly just in case. While bringing the necessary systems online, Pandoramon reached under the console and opened the maintenance port. With everything in place, she began to disconnect the web of security systems within the transmitter interface.  
  
No matter what the dangers, Pandoramon had to know what Devimon was hearing from The Darkness. There was no way she'd ever get a moment's peace otherwise.  
  
If Tai and Joe ever lacked an understanding of what true frustration was, they received it many times over while trying to catch up with some of the other dots on the screen. Every time they thought that they were getting close to connecting with some of the dots, they would veer off suddenly or there would be a wall in the way or something like that. To make matters worse, Tai and Joe were having a considerable disagreement over how to read the digivice map. Over and over again, the two boys found themselves staring that dead ends and flat walls where they had been sure doorways were supposed to be, and running head first into the occasional booby trap didn't help things much. Eventually, by some miracle, they managed to wind up right behind a pair of dots in the same hall as they were. After a very enthusiastic dash (that almost sent them plummeting down a pit) they wound up right on top of the two dots.  
  
Except that there was still no one in the hall with them.  
  
"AUGH!!!!!" Tai howled "I thought you said that you'd figured this thing out!"  
  
"Well I thought I did!" Joe whined "Whoever those digivices belong to ought to be right here!"  
  
"Well, unless they decided to become invisible, they ain't here!" Tai mouthed off.  
  
"You're not helping things any!" Joe shouted "Just give me a second to see if I can work out how the heck this stupid thing works!"  
  
"What's to work out? It's BUSTED!" Tai insisted.  
  
"It CAN'T be busted!" Joe cried "It's all we've got!"  
  
"So? I only had one Gamecube last year, and that didn't stop it from dieing on me!" Tai shoute.  
  
"PLEASE DON'T SAY `DIEING' RIGHT NOW!" Joe shouted back "I DO NOT NEED TO BE THINKING ABOUT THAT!!!"  
  
"OK then," Tai continued "why don't you think about this: there is no one here. Even though the digivices say that we are right on top of them, there is NO ONE HERE!!!"  
  
"OF COURSE!" Joe shouted, slapping himself on the forehead "I am so stupid!"  
  
"Uh...Well, I didn't want to be the one to say it, but"  
  
"WE'RE ON TOP OF THEM!!!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Think about it, we're in a mountain, right?" Joe explained "How many flat mountains do you know of?"  
  
"What?" Tai scoffed, quite lost now.  
  
"There aren't any!" Joe continued "Mountains go UP!"  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"So if this maze is in a mountain, shouldn't it go up too?"  
  
"Hey, yeah!" Tai exclaimed, finally catching on "And that would mean that the maze had levels on top of each other!"  
  
"Exactly!" Joe sighed "So whoever we're seeing on the map is probably in a hallway that's under us!"  
  
"And check it out!" Tai added "They're heading back towards that pit we almost fell into! I bet that if they go under it, we'll be able to talk to `em!"  
  
"YEAH!" Joe concurred "Let's go wait for them!" In only a few seconds, the two had dashed back by the pit. Of course, the two dots were making their way over at a very leisurely pace, so they needn't have rushed.  
  
"Come on, come on!" Tai shouted, hitting his digivice (as if that would make the dots move faster).  
  
"Oh no." Joe gasped "I just thought of something."  
  
"Do I want to know what that is?" Tai asked apprehensively.  
  
"What if they're actually ABOVE us?"  
  
"Wait a minute, WHAT?"  
  
"How are we supposed to know if there's a pit above us? It's too dark to see up there!"  
  
"Oh, uh uh. No way!" Tai moaned "Don't even THINK about that!"  
  
"Well, we ought to find out in a minute or so." Joe sighed, peering as far down the hole as he could without being afraid that he might fall in (which, for Joe, was standing two feet away from the edge). Thankfully, just as the two wandering dots met up with theirs, the faint light of two digivices began to glimmer from the bottom of the hole.  
  
"HEY!!!" Tai shouted exuberantly "WHO'S DOWN THERE?"  
  
"Tai? Is that you?" a startled Matt replied from below.  
  
"Hey Matt!" Tai shouted back "It's me and Joe!"  
  
"Where the heck are you?" Matt asked, looking around him for some sign of the two.  
  
"Look up, ya dummy!" Tai laughed, waving his digivice around to make sure that Matt saw it.  
  
"Hey, who's that with you?" Joe called down.  
  
"It's me!" Mimi replied "Hi guys!"  
  
"How on earth did you two get up there?" Matt asked.  
  
"I dunno, this is just where we woke up." Tai answered.  
  
"You woke up on the ceiling?" Mimi asked, confused.  
  
"No, it's just the next level after yours." Joe explained "We're talking to you through a hole in the floor."  
  
"Oh, so THAT'S what those things are!" Mimi muttered.  
  
"I thought that there would probably be more than one floor in this place." Matt thought aloud "But how'd you know we were down here?"  
  
"Well, the map was a bit of a tip off." Tai answered.  
  
"MAP? WHAT MAP?" Matt and Mimi shouted in unison.  
  
"On the digivice!" Joe instructed "Hit the top right button five times."  
  
"Well that's a good thing to know." Matt mussed, pulling up the map "When did you guys turn into digivice experts?"  
  
"We didn't." Joe laughed "This was pretty much a case of `what would Izzy do', you know?"  
  
"Hey, speak for yourself." Tai interrupted "I was just putting my brilliant, problem solving mind to work!"  
  
"You know, I thought I smelled something burning" Mimi snickered.  
  
"Hey, there's hope for you yet, Mimi!" Matt said with a grin.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Way to show your gratitude to the guy who just showed you how to use the digivice right!" Tai shouted back.  
  
"You're right, we should show more gratitude." Matt agreed "Thanks Joe!"  
  
"No problem!" Joe replied sheepishly "But we still aren't really sure how to use this thing. It looks like the map has a top-down view or something. We're having a lot of trouble working out just what is our floor and what's above or below us."  
  
"Well, that's pretty stupid" Mimi muttered, fiddling with the large button on the left "WOAH! What'd I do?"  
  
"Huh? What's going on?" Joe shouted.  
  
"Mimi, I think you just fixed the map!" Matt laughed, looking at her display. As Mimi pressed the edges of the large button the whole map seemed to tilt. After holding the top end of the button down for a few seconds, the once 2-D view from the top had turned into a completely 3-D model of the maze seen from the side, so that none of the floors overlapped.  
  
"I'm sorry! It was an accident! I didn't...Wait a minute, what am I saying? That's a good thing!" Mimi stuttered "GO ME!"  
  
"Hey, can you tell what floors the other dots are on?" Joe asked.  
  
"We can worry about that latter!" Tai interrupted "How far are we from the top of the mountain?"  
  
"It looks like the mountain goes up higher than the screen can show, Tai." Matt answered after studying the map for a moment "Oh, this is just great."  
  
"I hope that wasn't as sarcastic as it sounded like it was." Joe gulped, nervously.  
  
"Sorry to disappoint you guys," Matt replied "but I don't see any way to get from one floor to the next."  
  
"WHAT?" Tai moaned.  
  
"Well, I guess it mikes sense, in a really sick kind of way" Joe said weakly "I mean, they did block up all the doors, and it we probably were stuck down here so we could slowly wither away and die horrible, pitiful deaths!"  
  
"B-But...THAT'S NOT FAIR!!!" Mimi shrieked, starting to cry "I DON'T WANNA DIE! I'VE ALREADY ALMOST DIED MORE TIMES OVER THE PAST TWO WEEKS THAN MORE PEOPLE OUGHT TO IN THEIR WHOLE LIFE!!!"  
  
"Hey, hey, HEY!!!" Matt shouted "Everybody STOP IT!!! It's depressing enough around here as it is!"  
  
"That's right, it IS depressing!" Mimi shouted back, turning on the waterworks "And when people get depressed, they cry, so that's what I'm gonna do, and there's nothing you can do about it!"  
  
"Come on, Mimi, cut it out." Matt sighed, getting very irritated at the bawling girl "Seriously, cut it out. Mimi? MIMI STOP IT!!!"  
  
"That's not gonna work, Matt!" Tai insisted "Just wait for her to get it all out of her system."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Matt shouted back, rubbing his sore ears "I'll be deaf by then! Besides, this whole floor will be flooded!"  
  
"Don't worry Mimi!" Joe assured her "We've been in much tougher spots than this, and gotten out alive. Right?"  
  
"Well, I guess." Mimi answered, easing up on the tears but only slightly.  
  
"I mean, if we could get away from Andromon AND Centarumon alive, then figuring out a way to climb a few feet up should be no sweat, right?" Joe continued.  
  
"Um, yeah. I guess you're right." Mimi replied weakly.  
  
"Besides, we all know how to at least talk to each other, since we can see each other on the digivices." Joe added "It's not like we'll get lost or anything!"  
  
"Yeah, you're right!" Mimi chimed, wiping the last tear from her eye "Sorry I started crying and stuff."  
  
"No problem," Joe sighed "we're all pretty stressed right now."  
  
"Um...Uh, OK." Matt stammered, somewhat dumbfounded "Anyway, um, according to the map, there's one person in the level below ours and it looks like there are two others two levels above you guys. We'd probably better go see if we can hook up with some of these people."  
  
"That sounds like a plan to me!" Joe replied "I guess if we've got a problem, we'll get on top of you again and look for another hole in the floor."  
  
"That sounds like all we can do." Matt muttered, setting of to catch up with the dot below "I hope that's not T.K. all by himself down there"  
  
"That was a pretty cool little speech there, Joe." Tai commented as he and Joe set off to look for a way up to the next level "You sure got noble pretty quick."  
  
"Well I had to tell her something or she'd have kept crying for a week." Joe said.  
  
"Figures it'd be you Mimi decided to get all sweet on." Tai snickered, mischievously.  
  
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Joe asked.  
  
"Oh, you know just what I'm talking about, Romeo!" Tai insisted with a wink.  
  
"WHOA! WAIT A MINUTE!!!" Joe stammered, blushing profusely "It's not like that at all!"  
  
"So, come on, tell me." Tai continued "What really went on with you two down under the factory?"  
  
"NOTHING! I SWEAR!!!" Joe shouted "STOP IT!!!"  
  
"Honestly, and you said that I got embarrassed!" Tai laughed, enjoying his revenge thoroughly.  
  
Sora had never really thought about it much before, but she absolutely hated being alone. There was no one to talk to, no one to listen to, and no one to help if something went wrong, and seeing that there was about a million things that could go terribly wrong at the moment, Sora was definitely tired of being alone. In fact, now that he had a chance to think about it, Sora had never really been alone like this before. For one thing, it would be a real trick to find someplace in Tokyo where no one else was anyway, and Sora had never had any reason to try. Sometimes, though, she would come home from school to find that "something came up" and her mom was off taking care of something. There would usually be a note telling Sora that she wouldn't be back until tomorrow, so she'd need to wait. Of course, Sora never waited, who would? She usually wound up spending the night with a friend, and there was always a friend somewhere.  
  
Once, Tai had told Sora that she could be dropped in the middle of the Gobi desert and make twenty new best friends in twenty minutes. Obviously, he was exaggerating, but Sora had to admit that she did make friends pretty easily. There weren't any magic words she said or Jedi mind trick she used to get to know people, she just went up and said hi. Sora never really understood people who were too shy to talk to anybody, she did it so often that she really couldn't imagine being any other way.  
  
Certainly, at that moment, Sora would have given ANYTHING to have somebody to talk to.  
  
"HEY!" a voice suddenly shouted from somewhere above "Can you hear me down there?"  
  
"W-W-WHAT?" Sora stammered "WHO'S THERE? WHERE ARE YOU?"  
  
"Up here, about you!" Matt answered "It's Matt and Mimi!"  
  
"Is that you Sora?" Mimi added.  
  
"MIMI? MATT? YOU TWO ARE GODSENDS!" Sora shouted back, looking up to see the light of two Digivices above her "I'm talking sainthood here, big cathedrals in Rome named after you two!"  
  
"You can talk to the pope about that latter." Matt joked "Right now we need to figure out some way to get you out of there."  
  
"Yeah, there's, like, a bunch of floors and stuff on top of each other and we can't find any stairs connecting them." Mimi explained.  
  
"Wait a minute." Sora interrupted "'Floors'? You mean that this maze or whatever it is had more than one floor? Just how many are there?"  
  
"Good question." Matt replied "If Infinity Mountain is anywhere near as tall as the Digimon said, this thing might go up for miles."  
  
"WHOA, WAIT A MINUTE! This is new to me!" Mimi complained "Who said we had do go for miles?"  
  
"Well, anyway, how are you talking to me?" Sora asked, figuring it best not to dwell on that unpleasant thought "Is there a hole in the floor or something?"  
  
"Yep; and we've got to figure out some way to get you up through it." Matt answered "You wouldn't happen to have a ladder down there, would you?"  
  
"Sorry, you need Joe." Sora replied "I bet he's got a whole fire engine somewhere in that bag of his."  
  
"Well, maybe we can pull you up." Mimi offered "Can you reach us?"  
  
"I can't even see you, Mimi." Sora called back "I don't think I can reach you up there."  
  
"Well, try jumping." Mimi suggested.  
  
"I'm not a basketball player, Mimi!" Sora insisted "I can't jump that high!"  
  
"Besides, would you be able to reach her?" Matt asked Mimi.  
  
"Huh? Why would I need to reach her?" Mimi scoffed, incredulously "You're the one who's going to pull her up!"  
  
"Oh, yeah, that's right." Matt sighed "After all, it's not like you ever do anything to help."  
  
"Come on, you know I'm not build for heavy lifting!" Mimi answered "That's you boys' department!"  
  
"What do you mean `heavy lifting'?" Sora shot back.  
  
"OH! Sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded!" Mimi apologized.  
  
"Well, what was all this `we' stuff you were talking about then?" Matt asked.  
  
"Hey, we're a team, right?" Mimi asked, thinking everything she was saying made perfect sense.  
  
"Fine, fine, never mind." Matt sighed, giving up "Let's just get Sora up here."  
  
"I'm open to any ideas you've got." Sora said.  
  
"Hang on a sec." Matt said, taking off his jacket "See if you can grab onto my jacket sleeve."  
  
"I still can't see anything." Sora replied "You need to have longer arms."  
  
"OK, I'll try to make it longer." Matt said, quickly untying his boots and slipping them off.  
  
"Um, Matt?" Mimi asked "Do you really think that tying your shoelaces to the jacket will help much?"  
  
"Who said I was going to use the shoelaces?" Matt replied, pulling off his pants.  
  
"WHOA! WHOA! WAIT A MINUTE!!!" Mimi shouted, blushing so bright red that you probably could have seen it without the aid of a digivice "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING SORA NOT-"  
  
"Sorry to disappoint you, Mimi, but I don't like you like that." Matt interrupted,  
  
tying one of the pant legs and jacket sleeves together.  
  
"That's not the point and you know it isn't!" Mimi shouted.  
  
"Look, I don't see anything else to make a rope out of." Matt insisted "If you're going to get all uptight about it, just turn around!"  
  
"Fine, I will!" Mimi huffed, facing the other way as Matt lowered the makeshift rope down the hole "Boys can be so difficult sometimes"  
  
"Yeish, it's not like I don'thave underwear on or anything..." Matt muttered, dangling the rope as far down as he could "Can you reach it now?"  
  
"Well, I can see it." Sora replied "But it'll need to be about twice as long as that if I'm gonna get my hands on it."  
  
"OK, fine." Matt sighed, pulling the rope back up "Mimi?"  
  
"What do you want?" Mimi replied, curtly.  
  
"We need to make the rope twice as long." Matt answered.  
  
"I heard." Mimi told him "I'm not deaf, you know."  
  
"Come on, I need something else to tie on!" Matt pressed.  
  
"Well then, you'd better find something, hadn't you!" shot back.  
  
"Look, quit being difficult and help me." Matt pleaded.  
  
"I don't know what else we can use, honest!" Mimi insisted.  
  
"MIMI, JUST GIVE ME YOUR CLOTHES!" Matt shouted.  
  
"ABSOLUTELY NOT, YOU PERV!!!" Mimi screamed.  
  
"We don't have time for this!" Matt insisted "Now come on!"  
  
"No way!" Mimi shouted "Never, not in a million years, NO!!!"  
  
"It's alright, Matt." Sora called from below "I'm sure we can come up with something else!"  
  
"There is nothing else!" Matt answered "Mimi just needs to stop acting like a two year old!"  
  
"NO!!!" Mimi shouted, doing a very accurate impression of a two year old  
  
"NONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"LISTEN MIMI!" Matt shouted "IT'S EITHER THIS OR WE LEAVE SORA BEHIND DOWN THERE, ONE OR THE OTHER. NOW WHAT'S IT GONNA BE?"  
  
"Oooooooooh" Mimi groaned, taking a step backwards.  
  
"Come on, Mimi!" Matt grunted, well past annoyed at this point.  
  
"Uh...Just hold on!" Mimi replied, taking several more steps back.  
  
"Mimi, what are you doing?" Matt yelled.  
  
"Just hold on a sec!" Mimi yelled back, backing farther and farther into the darkness.  
  
"We don't have time for this, Mimi!" Matt shouted at the girl, who by this point was completely hidden by the dark except for the faint glimmer of her digivice. Matt was about to go drag her back and use her hair for the rope when a ball of wadded up pajamas rolled up to his feet.  
  
"When you're done with them, I want Sora to bring them back, not you!" Mimi shouted "AND YOU'D BETTER NOT RIP THEM!!!"  
  
"Alright, alright, fine." Matt sighed, tying the clothes together "Don't worry about it."  
  
"I'll try not to rip anything." Sora assured Mimi "Of course, you know that I can't promise anything, what with all the `heavy lifting' and stuff."  
  
"OK, heads up!" Matt called to Sora, lowering the clothes-rope down "This had better be long enough, of this little rescue operation'll get R-rated."  
  
"Don't worry, I got it!" Sora called back, giving the rope a tug "Nice pajamas, Mimi!"  
  
"Got a good grip down there?" Matt asked, getting ready to pull.  
  
"Yep." Sora answered "Let's get this show on the road!"  
  
"Alright, here we go!" Matt grunted, starting to pull Sora up "OW! Um, Sora? No offence, but I don't think Mimi was too far off with the `heavy lifting' thing."  
  
"Hey, don't you make me come up there!" Sora laughed.  
  
"Go right ahead," Matt joked "it'll make things go faster."  
  
Sora didn't really need to help, since it didn't take that long to pull her up anyway (well, Matt thought it took a while). Sora was shocked at thickness of the stone that made up the floor: it seemed about as tall as she was.  
  
"WHEW!" Matt panted as Sora popped through the hole "I hope we don't have to do this to get up every floor!"  
  
"Well, it could be worse." Sora pointed out "At least Devimon was decent enough to drop us down here with something to make ropes out of."  
  
"Speaking of which," Matt said, untying Mimi's pajamas and handing them to Sora "I think somebody's pitching a fit for these."  
  
"Yeah, I'll get `em to her." Sora laughed, taking the wad of clothes over to Mimi "Hey, Mimi! Waiting for something?"  
  
"SORA!!!!" Mimi exclaimed, giving her friend a warm embrace before clawing the pajamas out of her hands "Thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!"  
  
"So, how's it going?" Sora asked "You alright?"  
  
"Oh, that's a good one!" Mimi laughed grimly "I will need to be a VERY long way from this mountain, heck this whole island, before I'm `alright' again. Myrtilemon had better be dieing from guilt pains for dumping us in this place!"  
  
"HALLELUJAH! So long, File Island! Been nice knowin' ya...NOT!!!" Myrtilemon laughed, dancing around in the crow's nest of his barge, gazing anxiously back towards File Island. It was right about this point in the trip that the peak of Infinity Mountain vanished behind the ocean. That had always been something to celebrate before, but now it was ten times as momentous an occasion: the very last time he would ever see File Island. When Infinity Mountain finally vanished this time, that was it. The deal was set, his contract was finished, now he never had to make the trip back to that smelly hell hole again.  
  
And Myrtilemon was loving ever minute of it.  
  
"Come on, just about one inch to go. That's it" he whispered excitedly, watching the tinny mountain peak as the waves threatened to engulf it completely. "Good, good. Almost there. Let's go-"  
  
And that was it: one giant wave came rolling along and hid the last trace of  
  
Infinity Mountain. It was all behind him.  
  
"YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Myrtilemon howled, dancing around like never before in his life. It would still be a week on the open sea before he was back on Server, but as far as Myrtilemon was concerned, this was the happiest day of his life.  
  
Alone in the transmitter room, working as quickly as she could, Pandoramon unhooked the last of the fallback security systems from the transmitter interface. Now there was absolutely nothing standing in the way of her using the transmitter to contact The Darkness herself.  
  
What the hell was she thinking?  
  
A pretty good part of Pandoramon still couldn't believe that she was even considering the things she was in the middle of at the moment. This wasn't simply stupid; if there was even a chance that Devimon might find out, it was suicide! Devimon had made it extremely clear that no one, under any circumstances, was ever to contact The Darkness other than him. Even by simply thinking about it, Pandoramon was deliberately and willfully disobeying her master, and anyone who disobeyed Devimon took a very long time to die. Besides, even if Devimon didn't stop her, what would contact with The Darkness do to Pandoramon's mind? She still didn't really know what it was about Devimon that allowed him to communicate with is so readily; she really was clueless as to the effects it would have on another Digimon's mind. Of course, she had been told that it would drive any other Digimon insane, but Pandoramon had increasingly little reason to believe anything she had been told by anyone.  
  
That, of course, was the whole reason that she had to do it.  
  
Pandoramon's little scheme may have been the dumbest thing she'd ever concocted, but it was really the only thing she could possibly do at this point. If her suspicions were right and The Darkness wasn't to be trusted, then she needed proof so she could warn Devimon and get out before the Digidestined destroyed everything. If she was wrong, then she still need proof so she'd be able to concentrate on her work again. And if it drove her mad...Well, she was going to wind up going mad if she didn't, so she might as well get some answers in the process.  
  
Just a few feet from the operations console, Pandoramon had rigged up a little escape hatch just incase she needed to get out of the transmitter room without being seen. Hopefully, she wasn't going to need it, but with the risks she was taking there was no point in being any more foolish than she already was.  
  
So, this was it. All of the tinkering was done, all she had to do now was actually turn on the machine. Pandoramon had already set up a command delay so she'd have time to get out from behind the console before it came online and an auto shutdown after twenty seconds so that she wouldn't be stuck in there without anyone to shut the machine off. She'd also stacked up every crate, toolbox, and any other stackable object under the interface so she'd actually be able to reach it (after all, it was designed for Devimon, who was almost twice her height). All the work she could possibly do was finished, there was no putting it off any longer, Pandoramon had to do it. Her frail fingers hovered over the controls, trembling. In all of her life, Pandoramon had never felt as frightened as she did now. Nothing was as unsettling to her as the unknown, and you couldn't get much more unknown than what she was about to throw herself into. Was she insane? Pandoramon had devoted her whole life to knowing facts so she wouldn't have to be controlled by irrational whims and traditions, and here she was on the verge of most likely ending that life all to satisfy a hunch! It was absurd...But she was going to do it anyway.  
  
Pandoramon closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and hit the start button.  
  
"Well, that's it." Pandoramon gulped "No turning back now" With that, she scrambled over to the center of the room, climbed to the top of the pile of boxes, and waited. After a few seconds that seemed like an eternity (during which her mind screamed at her to turn the machine off and get the hell out of there) the round hatch on the ceiling opened and a web of frightful looking tendrils descended towards the petrified Digimon. Pandoramon was trembling so hard that it was all she could do to keep from falling off the stack of boxes and her heart was beating so heard that she seriously feared that it might burst. Slowly, the snake like tendrils found their way down to Pandoramon and gently pressed their tips to her head. This was it; she was interfaced with the transmitter.  
  
The first thing Pandoramon felt was a sensation of movement, like she was being thrown through the air at an incredible speed. In a second, all sense of feeling in her body vanished, as did sight and hearing and pretty much everything. All she knew was that something very strange was going on inside her head. The more Pandoramon lost feeling in her body, the more strange, alien thought began to appear in her mind. At first, she couldn't really make out any of them, they were more like brief sensations than actual thoughts. However, these thought quickly became clearer and clearer as they began to overpower her own thoughts. Suddenly it hit her: she was actually in contact with The Darkness.  
  
It was most likely the last clear thought Pandoramon had in her life.  
  
Just as she began to wrap her brain around what was going on, things began to get jumbled and the massive, alien intelligence of The Darkness literally flooded into Pandoramon's mind, steamrolling over anything that got in its way. She tried to make sense of the things swimming around the inside of her head, but it was like everything was trying to register at once and she couldn't sort it all out. This thing was BIG, bigger than anything she could have possibly imagined and the rest of the Digital World knew it; that was why everything was happening. Wait a minute, what was that? Pandoramon tried to understand, but it was all coming to her out of order or, no, it was just that everything was getting jumbled up as it tried to fit into her head and besides it was all so strange and unrecognizable that she would have had trouble making sense of it anyway and and WHOA WHAT WAS THAT? All of a sudden everything seemed to blow up, somebody was very surprised and angry and it must have been The Darkness, yeah, that was it, it must have gotten so used to talking to Devimon that it was totally caught off guard by Pandoramon's mind and it didn't know how to keep it under control but what did mean "control" and what the hell was wrong with Pandoramon's head? Everything was going so fast and getting so jumbled that it was all like one big smear and Pandoramon could only make out parts of it and she didn't know how to put it all together and oh my God what is that? Was it laughing at her? No but something was off in the back of The Darkness but all over it that wanted to laugh like crazy and scream because the plan was going so well but what was the plan and why was she seeing Devimon all of a sudden and why didn't he feel this too oh no he must have but just didn't care on that's really not it he didn't want to see he must have convinced himself that it was all good yeah that had to be it everything inside the freaked up Darkness was wrong so very very wrong but Devimon was going along with it anyway it was worse than she though he wasn't being fooled he knew just what was going on but what actually was going on it was like something was starving and hungry and eating everything it could get it's hands on and oh my God that can't really be it are you insane you can't kill the whole Digital World what do you mean there can't be more than the Digital World but it was saying that there were three or four or the hundred or it didn't know and it didn't care it just wanted to get rid of it all but why the hell would you want to do that oh come on she'd been around she knew that everything basically sucked and there wasn't anything anybody could do about it except wait for it to end because everything ends and wouldn't it just be better to go ahead and end it all right away rather than wait for it and Pandoramon couldn't believe what was happening she was even having trouble telling what was coming from her and what was coming from The Darkness and hadn't she been listening to Devimon all these years `cause that's just what he'd been telling her but she didn't want to hear because she never wanted to hear anything and look where it got her now she was going insane bravo well done there wasn't anything she could do about anything now she was screwed this was it but how did he know oh didn't Devimon tell you? I can see the future, baby, and you're gonna die slow and oh my God you can't do this well too bad girlie I've always been bigger and better than everything else that exists that's why I was put away in the first place but not it's time for me to make my comeback and guess what everybody gonna die and so long, gal, looks like your time's up-  
  
With what felt like a bomb going off inside her head, Pandoramon was disconnected from the transmitter and collapsed to the floor. In a matter of seconds, the tendrils had pulled themselves back into the ceiling again and vanished. You almost couldn't tell that anything had happened at all except for the scattered boxes in the center of the room and the convulsing Digimon lying next to them. For the longest time, Pandoramon wasn't aware of anything, how could she be? Her consciousness had literally been torn to shreds by The Darkness, it was all she could do to remember her name.  
  
Finally, Pandoramon began to remember what was going on around her, and did the only thing she could think of:  
  
She screamed like she had never screamed before.  
  
Everything was so totally screwed up, it was insane. How had Pandoramon let herself get so caught up in this mess? She had to get out of there. No matter what, she absolutely had to get out of there! The only thing left to do now was to find the Digidestined, everything was lost if they died down there. Slowly, unsteadily, Pandoramon crawled to the escape hatch, her fractured mind racing.  
  
Somehow, she had to help them!  
  
"Look, I really am sorry about your foot." T.K. apologized for the hundredth time.  
  
"I know, it's alright, really!" Izzy assured him, limping along "I should have had better footing when I caught you."  
  
"Yeah, but if I hadn't slipped, you wouldn't have had to catch me at all." T.K. pointed out.  
  
"Honestly, it's fine!" Izzy laughed "I'd rather have a sore ankle than you with a broken neck!"  
  
"Well, yeah, I guess that I'd rather have that to." T.K. replied.  
  
"I certainly hope you would." Izzy commented, returning his gaze to the digivice "Now let's get back to finding the others." It hadn't taken Izzy long to figure out how to adjust the digivice map as Mimi had, so he knew that the others were quite a few levels below them.  
  
"I wish Patamon was here." T.K. sighed "I bet he'd have an idea how to get down there."  
  
"I'm sure Tentomon would have quite a few suggestions as well." Izzy added "So we'll just have to ask them that when we find them."  
  
"They'd better not be eating wherever they are" T.K. declared "'cause I'm starving!"  
  
"You'll get no argument from me there." Izzy agreed before noticing a sudden buzz from the digivice "Wait a minute"  
  
"Huh?" T.K. asked "What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know, let's see." Izzy muttered, switching back to the danger gauge. To his very unpleasant surprise, Izzy found that the gauge had suddenly jumped up to the top of the screen.  
  
"W-W-WHAT?" T.K. stuttered, gazing at Izzy's digivice in horror "But we were fine just a second ago!"  
  
"Well, we're definitely in danger now!" Izzy shouted "Let's backtrack and find another way around this place." Before they had a chance to do anything, however, the floor beneath them began to shake violently and loudly.  
  
"WHOA!" T.K. shouted, trying to keep his balance "We definitely gotta get someplace else!"  
  
"I believe that will be accomplished whether we want it to or not!" Izzy shouted back over the increasingly loud rumble "It feels like the floor is collapsing! Sure enough, the large chunk of rock that the two were standing on broke free from the rest and plummeted to the floor below, taking the two children with it.  
  
"OW!!!!" T.K. whined, rubbing his head after hitting the floor (that had hit the floor) "That hurt A LOT!!"  
  
"I'm afraid that it didn't do my ankle any good either." Izzy moaned, trying to get up "I think I'm going to need some help walking."  
  
"Um, OK." T.K. said cautiously "But I don't think I can carry you."  
  
"Well, hopefully, that won't be necessary." Izzy assured him "But I could definitely use something to lean on. I doubt that I'll be able to walk on this for a while."  
  
"OK, here you go." T.K. sighed, taking Izzy's arm over his shoulder "Boy, it's a good thing you're not very tall or we wouldn't be able to do this."  
  
"Thank you for putting a positive spin on my lack of height." Izzy replied "And, speaking of positive spins, I see that now we're only one level away from the others."  
  
"Um, Izzy?" T.K. whispered, freezing "The floor just shook again. Can we be positive about that?"  
  
"I wouldn't." Izzy said, nervously "I doubt that this floor benefited much from having a huge block of stone and two children dropped on it. It's quite possible that this floor could be preparing to fall out as well."  
  
"WHAT? NO FAIR!" T.K. shouted "What do we do?"  
  
"We get as far away from this place as we can!" Izzy declared, already trying to get moving "Let's go!" As it turned out, one injured boy with a human crutch can't move very quickly or gracefully, but T.K. and Izzy still managed to put a respectable distance between themselves and the mound of ruble before that floor fell out as well.  
  
"I wonder why our digivices didn't say anything until it was too late." T.K. wondered, poking his to see if it was broken.  
  
"I don't know. I suppose that it was still safe when we approached and something shook it lose before the digivice could warn us." Izzy guessed "It would seem that Devimon is getting tired of waiting for us to fall into a hole on our own."  
  
"Oh no" T.K. moaned "Patamon, where are you?"  
  
"OH, YEAH!" Ogermon laughed, watching the humans limp away from the ruble on his monitor "That was a good one! Check out how I messed up that limping one, he can barely walk!"  
  
"But they still walked away." Leomon pointed out coldly "I believe the result Lord Devimon was hoping for was death."  
  
"Um, well, yeah" Ogermon replied sheepishly "Um, I was just warming up..."  
  
"And how long will it take you become fully...`warmed up'?" Leomon asked.  
  
"Look, just give me a minute, alright?" Ogermon insisted "I'm just having a little fun here! They'll get it eventually!"  
  
"They should get it NOW!" Leomon bellowed.  
  
"But where's the fun in that?" Ogermon objected "Wouldn't it be cooler to make `em suffer a while and then finish `em?"  
  
"I can see the attraction in that." Devimon cut in, venturing over from the other end of the command chamber "Let him have at least a little fun, Leomon."  
  
"Of course, Lord Devimon." Leomon replied, bowing slightly "I was merely suggesting that Ogermon arrange for more serious injuries be inflicted."  
  
"That's true." Devimon commented "I don't want them alive down there too much longer, so don't have that much fun."  
  
"OK, if you say so" Ogermon sighed "I'll make the next one fall two floors instead of one, OK?"  
  
"Fine, just do it." Devimon muttered, heading back to his main view screen  
  
"Where is she?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Thundermon asked, afraid that he'd missed an order.  
  
"I wasn't speaking to you, although" Devimon mussed, absentmindedly "Have you heard from Pandoramon?"  
  
"Uh, no, my Lord." Thundermon answered "The last I heard she was in the transmitter room testing something."  
  
"Yes, that seems to be the last anyone heard." Devimon mumbled. Where had she gotten off to? This was no time for her to be off on one of her little mystery errands, although it was just the kind of situation where she'd been prone to do it in the past. Pandoramon had always had a habit of obsessing over silly little things, especially where new technology was concerned. It would hardly be out of character for her to run off to find some little trinket that she felt would improve the Heracles Mechanism, especially after the fuss she had made about it's danger earlier. Wait a minute  
  
"No, she wouldn't" Devimon said to himself, hurriedly checking to see if Pandoramon had, in fact, dismantled the Mechanism and fled. Thankfully, when he pulled open the panel to its controls, everything was working as it should.  
  
"Well, as long as I'm here" Devimon though, opening a tiny hatch in the center of the controls. After a second of feeling around the small compartment, his long claws pulled out a tiny object that looked like an overly ordinate nail. He then placed the strange object in his palm, where it quickly burrowed its way into his dark, decayed skin.  
  
"Um, Lord Devimon?" Thundermon asked, warily "What the heck is that?"  
  
"That is none of your business." Devimon replied curtly.  
  
"Oh, um, of course!" Thundermon stuttered "I'm sorry!"  
  
"Just get back to work." Devimon instructed, beginning to pace around. That cursed Pandoramon was going to receive a very intense talking to when she finally turned up.  
  
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Mimi complained "It sure is taking a long time!"  
  
"That's because we're going a long way!" Matt shouted back "The two tend to go together!"  
  
"Well can't we find a shorter way to go?" Mimi whined "I'm tired of walking!"  
  
"No, we can't find a shorter way because there isn't one!" Matt insisted "Now stop whining!"  
  
"Hey, hey!" Sora interrupted "You two cut it out! We won't get there any faster if you yell at each other!"  
  
"Well, he started it" Mimi muttered, sulking.  
  
"Uh huh, sure. Whatever." Matt mumbled, examining the map again. Although he didn't say so, he was getting even more anxious than Mimi to reach their destination. Roughly twenty minutes or so ago, the two dots that had been the farthest above them took a very sudden drop down a floor, a drop that had to have been painful. Matt most likely wouldn't have gotten too worked up about it (seeing that the two dots were still moving, after all) were it not for the fact that, by process of elimination, one of those dots had to be T.K. And if anything had happened to him  
  
"So, um, what exactly are we going to do when we catch up with the others?" Sora asked.  
  
"Beats me, I'm out of ideas." Matt confessed "I think that's the whole reason we're looking for them."  
  
"Oh, um...OK." Sora sighed, Matt wasn't exactly the easiest person to have a conversation with.  
  
"All I can say is that, if we make another rope, Tai and Joe get to donate to it this time." Mimi declared "I've already done my part."  
  
"I don't remember anyone ever telling you that you only had to be inconvenienced once, Mimi." Matt pointed out "We're officially in survivor mode right now. You'll do whatever it takes to get out of here."  
  
"WELL WHO MADE YOU KING OF THE WORLD?" Mimi shouted "I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING YOU SAY AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"  
  
"OK, fine. Then stop following me." Matt calmly replied.  
  
"I...Uh...I'm not following you!" Mimi stammered, not keen on the idea of being by herself "I'm just...uh...going the same direction as you, that's all!"  
  
"Whatever you say, Mimi." Matt sighed "Just stop whining, alright?"  
  
"Only because I'm too tired to keep doing it." Mimi replied, shutting up.  
  
"I think you really need to work on your people skills, Matt." Sora offered.  
  
"What people skills?" Matt asked, engrossed in the map.  
  
"That's what I'm talking about." Sora explained "Like it or not, we've all been stuck together as a team. You'll need to start acting like it."  
  
"Look, Sora, I never agreed to bei yanked off of Earth, dropped in this madhouse, or be called a Digidestined by a bunch of maniacs and I'm not going to pretent that I did." Matt stated coldly "Plus, as far as I'm concerned, Centarumon and Unimon are lunatics, so just because they say that we're a gang of messiahs, that doesn't mean that it's true."  
  
"Well then, why do you think were here?" Sora asked.  
  
"I don't know," Matt curtly replied "but I know that I'm taking the very first chance I get to go back home whether I'm done being a `Digidestined' or not."  
  
"Oh, come on Matt." Sora sighed "I'm really not sure if I believe those two either, but if we really were brought here to get rid of Devimon, then we'll get to go home after we do, right? That sounds like a good enough reason to play along for a while to me."  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute." Matt shouted, freezing "Something just moved beneath us."  
  
"HUH?" Mimi shrieked "Is something crawling around the floor?"  
  
"No, it was the floor that moved!" Sora shouted.  
  
"GET BACK!!!" Matt yelled, running back where they had come from "I've got a nasty hunch that this floor is about to turn into a one way elevator down!" Sure enough, the stone floor made a sudden, deafening crack and began to slip downwards. Sora and Mimi managed to make it back to firm ground just before the floor gave way, but Matt, who had been farthest behind, was still on the stone slap when it fell. Rather than making some insane attempt to grab onto the edge, Matt simply braced himself to make sure that he didn't crack his head open when the rock hit the floor below. He actually made it through the fall with little more that headache and probably would have walked away no problem. Unfortunately, he hadn't anticipated the possibility that the floor on the level below might be lose as well and, just as he began to get up again, that floor fell out too. This time, Matt landed like a sack of brick in the center of a pile of very painful rubble.  
  
"MATT!!!" Sora screamed from two levels above "MATT, CAN YOU HEAR ME?"  
  
"HEY MATT!" Mimi shouted as well "COME ON! ANSWER!"  
  
"Oh God, please let him be alright." Sora prayed, horrified.  
  
"THIS IS NO TIME TO BE ALL STRONG AND SILENT, MATT!!!" Mimi shouted "SAY SOMETHING!"  
  
"OOOOOWWWWW!!!!!!" Matt screamed from somewhere inside the pile of rubble.  
  
"Well, um, that's good." Mimi stuttered "THANKS! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"  
  
"Oh, yeah; I just screamed `ooooowwww' for the fun of it." Matt grunted, trying to worm his way out of the debris "I get buried in landslides all the time!"  
  
"What's the matter?" Sora shouted anxiously "Can you move?"  
  
"Sort of," Matt replied "pretty much everything hurts, though."  
  
"W-What do you mean?" Sora asked "Is anything broken?"  
  
"I don't know. My arm's pretty- WOW!!! OH MAN!" Matt shouted "Yep, it's busted alright!"  
  
"Oh no." Sora mumbled, franticly "Oh no...What do we do now"  
  
"I'll tell you what you do." Matt instructed "You find a way around the hole and find a way to hook up with the others!"  
  
"But...We can't leave you down there!" Sora protested.  
  
"But you can't get me out of here either, can you?" Matt pointed out "It'll take a lot more clothes than either of you have on you to get a rope down here."  
  
"Well, how'll you get out?" Mimi asked.  
  
"I don't' know; I'm still working on that!" Matt shouted "I might be able to climb up all this ruble and junk."  
  
"With a broken arm?" Sora asked, incredulously.  
  
"Look, this is the best I can do." Matt yelled "You just go find the other guys and figure out what to do then!"  
  
"But...But" Mimi stammered.  
  
"Come on, Mimi." Sora said, unhappily "Let's get moving."  
  
"But what about Matt?" Mimi whimpered "We can't leave him down there!"  
  
"I don't want to either, but he's right." Sora confessed "There's really nothing we can do for him right now. We'll have a better chance of helping Matt if we've got everyone else with us."  
  
"Oh...OK, but I don't like it" Mimi sighed.  
  
"Me neither" Sora agreed "When we find Centarumon and Unimon, remind me to punch them both."  
  
Only a few levels beneath Devimon, the seven Digidestined Digimon were laying unconscious in a spacious laboratory. Since it had proven impossible for anyone to examine the digivices and live to tell about it, Devimon had decided to run a few tests on the Digimon themselves and see what he could find out about their Digivolving. Of course, with the seven humans running around beneath them, Devimon hadn't even had time to decide what kind of tests he would run yet. In the meantime, the seven Digimon were snoozing comfortably in the lab, receiving numerous doses of sedatives to keep them so. Centarumon and Unimon, on the other hand, had received far less elaborate accommodations: a bonk on the head, a big dose of some kind of sleeping attack, and a rude toss into a very plain cell with a rather fat Tekkamon watching them from outside. Apparently, Devimon figured that since the two of them weren't the Digidestined's partners it would take very little to keep them subdued.  
  
Obviously, Devimon was not the brightest crayon in the box.  
  
While the Tekkamon no doubt assumed that they were sleeping just as soundly as when they had been brought in, Centarumon and Unimon had actually been awake for some time. At the moment, the two were putting the finishing touches on there breakout plan.  
  
"OK, is that the same Mekanoimon from twenty minutes ago?" Unimon whispered, watching the guard walk behind Tekkamon.  
  
"Looks like it to me." Centarumon replied "That makes four patrolling guards five minutes apart."  
  
"Great." Unimon sighed "Close enough to, but far enough away from each other for at least one of them to slip away before we catch them."  
  
"At least someone had the decency to stick us with the bottom of the barrel as guards." Centarumon pointed out "These fellows are some of the porkiest guards I've ever seen anyplace."  
  
"Of course!" Unimon replied "They're not going to go wasting the best and the brightest of the grand Devimon army on guarding a pair of old farts like us, are they?"  
  
"I know I wouldn't." Centarumon laughed (as quietly as he could) "Damn it's good to have you back in action, Unimon."  
  
"Well thanks for taking the time to pull that gear out of me!" Unimon answered "That thing itched like you wouldn't believe."  
  
"Hey, I was fitted with one two, remember?" Centarumon joked before turning his attention back to the matter at hand "So what'll it be? Wait for the next patrol and hit him and the guard at the same time?"  
  
"Sounds good to me." Unimon agreed "Of course, the trick will be finding out where they're holding the Digidestined."  
  
"That really shouldn't be that hard." Centarumon said with a grin (well, if anyone could have seen past his helmet, there would have been a grin) "We'll just look for all the guards that we couldn't possibly get around and there they'll be!"  
  
"Simple as that eh?" Unimon snickered "Wait, here comes the next patrol."  
  
"I hear him." Centarumon replied, getting ready to spring "Let's go."  
  
In all likelihood, neither the Tekkamon nor the Mekanorimon had time to notice any movement before they died. In the interest of keeping a low profile for as long as possible, Centarumon and Unimon dispensed of the two with their bare hands (well, Unimon didn't have any "hands" per se, but the idea was the same). Just as they has expected, two more guards came rushing towards them to find out what was going on. A fast punch from Centarumon and a kick from Unimon quickly embedded the two in the stone walls of the hall. Apparently, the forth patrol ran off to find some back up, but they'd figured that one would get away. Now they needed to figure out where to go next.  
  
"OK, I see two halls." Centarumon said, glancing down each one "They're both dank, dark and uninviting, but that's nothing new. Any preferences?"  
  
"It doesn't make much difference to me." Unimon laughed "With our luck, they're probably both the wrong one."  
  
"Well, in that case, let's take the left." Centarumon figured "If I'm going down the wrong hall anyway, I'm not going all the way over there to do it."  
  
"Makes sense to me, Let's go!" Unimon replied, following Centarumon down the hall.  
  
"HUH?" Ogermon cried "WHADDA YA MEAN THEY ESCAPED?"  
  
"I mean, they're gone!" explained the Mekanorimon who escaped.  
  
"YOU IDIOT!!!" Ogermon bellowed "HOW COULD YOU LET THAT HAPPEN?"  
  
"I assure you that it wasn't intentional!" the Mekanorimon replied stupidly.  
  
"Do you have any idea how bad you've bade me look?" Ogermon ranted, ignoring the other Digimon "I'm the one who put you guys in charge of guarding those two! Now Devimon'll think that it's my fault that you screwed up!"  
  
"But we were only following your orders!" the Mekanorimon insisted.  
  
"WHY YOU LITTLE-" Ogermon howled, sending the upper half of the Mekanorimon's body flying into the wall behind it with a swing of his club "NOBODY TELLS OGERMON THAT ANYTHING IS HIS FAULT!!!"  
  
"Don't waste resources, Ogermon." Leomon admonished from behind.  
  
"Well it was his own fault for making me look stupid!" Ogermon insisted "He deserved it; in fact, he was probably defective or somethin'!"  
  
"I believe that you have far more important things to worry about now." Leomon pointed out.  
  
"I should say he does." Devimon hissed, walking over again.  
  
"Uh, uh, yeah." Ogermon panted "Like, um, finding out where they went?"  
  
"Yes, that's right." Devimon quietly, unsettlingly answered "Because those two Digimon just happen to be two of the most powerful Digimon on all of File Island, and now they're running around somewhere inside my mountain."  
  
"Uh, yeah, that's not good is it?" Ogermon gulped.  
  
"IT MOST CERTAINLY IS NOT!!!" Devimon bellowed "NOW GET OUT THERE AND FIND UNIMON AND CENTARUMON BEFORE THEY HAVE A CHANCE TO FIND THE DIGIDESTINED AND TEAR THIS MOUNTAIN APART BECAUSE IF THEY DO I'LL FEED YOU TO THEM MYSELF!!!"  
  
"GAH!!! Y-Y-YES MY LORD!!!" Ogermon screamed, running like mad out of the control room.  
  
"I would never dream of questioning your orders, my Lord," Leomon commented "but I do not believe that Ogermon is competent enough to lead the search for Centarumon and Unimon."  
  
"OK, teams Four and Thirteen, um...actually, make that Fifteen" Ogermon mumbled over the com system "Anyway, you guys get into the holding sectors; we've got work to do!"  
  
"That walking scab isn't competent enough to lead a heard of Betamon to the ocean." Devimon agreed.  
  
"Would you prefer me to lead the search?" Leomon offered.  
  
"No, I have something far more important for you to do." Devimon replied.  
  
"What do you wish of me, master?" Leomon inquired.  
  
"Take whoever you need and get down into the labyrinth." Devimon instructed  
  
"I want those humans dead; immediately. If Centarumon and Unimon succeed in eluding Ogermon, the first thing they'll do is find the seven Digimon and then reunite them with their human partners. That is not an acceptable possibility."  
  
"Of course not." Leomon agreed.  
  
"I want them dead NOW." Devimon made clear "No theatrics, no dragging it out, no making them suffer, just KILL THEM!"  
  
"Absolutely, my Lord." Leomon replied with a bow before turning and leaving.  
  
"Um, teams Four and Fifteen?" Ogermon stated over the com again "Actually, you guys should go to the conference room first so I can tell you what you need to do. That's all." Devimon simply sighed. Delegating responsability to his subordinates had to be the dumbest thing he'd ever done. As soon as this was over we would take away all authority from those clowns and run the army on his own again, stress be damned.  
  
For the forth time in a row, Matt lost his grip on the large stone in front of him and fell to the floor. Of course, this made his busted excuse for an arm hurt like hell, but that couldn't really be helped (just walking made it hurt). Matt cursed for a bit and punched the stubborn slab of rock, which, of course, left his hand sore. After a bit more cursing, Matt gave up and collapsed in the middle of the rubble. Who was he kidding? He probably wouldn't be able to climb up that thing with two good arms in broad daylight, much less here. There was no way he was getting out of there without some help, but how was anybody supposed to pull that off? The whole idea was to go up Infinity Mountain, not down. Besides, there was no way they could pull of a rope that could reach all the way down to him and he probably wouldn't be able to hold on to it if they did. There was always the possibility that they might decide to take on Devimon without him and come back later, but that was obviously a bad thing because then they would all get killed and no one would be around to get him out.  
  
"Oh, man" Matt sighed "Now what do I do?"  
  
"Don't worry." a voice piped up from beside him "You're supposed to know in a little bit."  
  
"WHAT? Who's there?" Matt shouted, looking around. To his surprise, there was a ghostly pale, gray haired girl with a pair of dragging white wings squatting next to him. It didn't take Matt longer than a moment to remember where he'd seen her before: it was the Digimon that had put him to sleep in the mansion the day before "What do you want?" Matt shouted, backing away  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"AUGH!" The Digimon screamed, tumbling backwards as if she was more frightened than he was "I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY!!!!! That wasn't before, I mean it wasn't now! I didn't...I'm sorry; I shouldn't have done that!"  
  
"Well?" Matt demanded "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I didn't know all of this then." she mumbled, her head bobbing around in a very unusual manner "If I had...I mean, a river wouldn't flow into the ocean if it knew that the ocean would eat it up, would it?"  
  
"For the last time, what are you doing here?" Matt shouted.  
  
"AHHH! I'M SORRY!" she screamed, curling up as if she expected to be hit "I just want to help!"  
  
"What?" Matt stammered.  
  
"They're coming to kill you!" she explained urgently "All the plans are getting messed up. They don't have time to wait for traps any more. They're going to come and kill you all!"  
  
"What do you mean?" Matt asked, a little afraid to know "Who are they?"  
  
"But I know where they are, I can see them!" Pandoramon continued "I never trusted any of them, so I made a shield to keep all the gears way."  
  
"What- Gears?" Matt asked, trying to figure out just what the heck this weirdo was talking about "You mean Black Gears?"  
  
"YES! Yes yes yes yes yes!" she happily shouted, nodding her head vigorously "I know when they're coming and I can keep them away. I wish I had know about Ogermon, though, it won't work with him. I thought that I was the only one then"  
  
"Hey, HEY!" Matt interrupted "There are six other kids somewhere in here. Do you know where they are?"  
  
"YEAH! Your friends! Yeah, I can find them, I know where they are!" she replied  
  
"I can find your friends. You know about that anyway. Well, you will, I think. It's hard to keep straight."  
  
"Hey, listen- OW!!!" Matt shouted, starting to get up and hurting his arm in the process.  
  
"Wha...Does it hurt?" she asked, timidly.  
  
"Of course it hurts!" Matt answered, cradeling his arm "It's broken!"  
  
"Oh no, I'm sorry!" she said, franticly "It's all my fault. Everything's my fault! I'm sorry, I never should have let this happen, it's all my fault! Here, let me see"  
  
"WHOA! Wait a minute!" Matt shouted, pulling away as the girl started to reach towards his arm "What do you think your doing?"  
  
"AAAHHHH!!! No, don't!" she screamed, balling up again "I can fix it, I think. No, I can. I can!"  
  
"What? You mean you can fix my arm?" Matt asked.  
  
"Yes yes yes!" she replied "I can fix it! I can fix everything for you. I'm good at that!"  
  
"Uh...How exactly would you do it?" Matt asked, apprehensive about the strange Digimon but very eager to have his arm repaired.  
  
"Like this." she replied, laying her hand on his arm "Regeneration Touch."  
  
"HEY! I didn't say...Hey wait a minute" Matt muttered. Suddenly, all the pain in his arm had vanished. In fact, all the pain in his whole body vanished "What was that?"  
  
"See? I told you!" Pandoramon said with an uncertain smile "Can I help you know?"  
  
"Uh...Well, I guess so" Matt replied. After all, he was pretty much screwed anyway, there wasn't much to lose by accepting her help "So, what do I call you?"  
  
"I bet that I can help everybody like that." she said, apparently not hearing Matt "I'd never actually tried in on a...Um, what was it...Human?"  
  
"Hey, you listening?" Matt asked again "What's your name?"  
  
"My name? Uh...which one is my name right now" Pandoramon muttered to herself, scratching her head "Pandoramon! That's it, Pandoramon!"  
  
"OK Pandoramon, I'm Matt."  
  
"Oh, I know!" Pandoramon replied "You're the one closest to here as I am! That's why I came to see you instead of the others. They didn't see me anyway."  
  
"Wait a minute, you saw the others?"  
  
"Uh huh, I had to go past to get down here. But I didn't want to talk to them, they wouldn't understand. You understand though, don't you?"  
  
"Quite frankly, I haven't understood a single word you've said." Matt confessed.  
  
"Ooooh, I knew it!" Pandoramon cried, burying her face in her hands "I knew it! I just...I can't...I'm trying to make it make since, but I...It's all such a mess!"  
  
"Look, look, don't worry about it." Matt interrupted "It's not important. Just show me where the others are."  
  
"O-OK" Pandoramon sighed, picking up an odd looking staff on the floor beside her and standing up. At least, she tried, she wabbled around like a toddler for a minute before finally getting all the way up. Even then, she could only manage a few steps before collapsing into Matt's arms.  
  
"Uh...Are you alright?" Matt asked, wondering if he really was going to get any help out of this weird Digimon at all.  
  
"I'm sorry, it's hard to remember how" Pandoramon apologized, wrapping her arms around Matt's neck "There's just too much going on the remember it all."  
  
"Uh, yeah" Matt sighed, it looked like he was going to have to carry her "So how do we get to wherever the others are?"  
  
"Over there." Pandoramon replied, pointing to a spot a few feet away "I need to be over there."  
  
"OK, sure." Matt muttered, walking over to the spot Pandoramon had pointed out.  
  
"Hold on tight." Pandoramon whispered, raising a trembling hand up towards the vast hole above them "Velvet Strand." As soon as those words left her lips, a purple, shimmering beam shot out from her fingertips and flew up to the ceiling several floors above. Before Matt had a chance to ask Pandoramon what was happening, the two suddenly shot up along the beam and wound up standing two floor above where they had been a second before.  
  
"Whoa" Matt gasped "THAT is a useful thing to have."  
  
"There isn't a lot of time left." Pandoramon said, looking around nervously  
  
"They're getting close to the two up at the top. They...OH NO!!!"  
  
"What?" Matt shouted what it is?"  
  
"It's Leomon!" Pandoramon shouted "Leomon's coming! We have to go, NOW!!!"  
  
/I  
  
"OK, OK! I'm going!" Matt shouted, running as fast as he could with Pandoramon draped over him.  
  
To Be Continued... 


	11. You've Really Got A Hold On Me

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book One  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
My baby's got a heart of stone  
  
Can't you people just leave her alone?  
  
She never did nothing to hurt you  
  
So just leave her alone  
  
The motion of her tiny hands  
  
and the quiver of her bones below  
  
are the signs of a girl alone  
  
and tell you everything you need to know  
  
I can't explain it  
  
I feel it often  
  
every time I see her face  
  
But the way you treat her  
  
fills me with rage and I  
  
want to tear apart the place  
  
You try to tell her what to do  
  
but all she does is stare at you  
  
Her stare is louder than your voice  
  
because truth doesn't make a noise  
  
No, Truth doesn't make a noise  
  
No, Truth doesn't make a noise  
  
I can't explain it  
  
I feel it often  
  
every time I see her face  
  
But the way you treat her  
  
it fills me with rage and I  
  
Want to tear apart the place  
  
"Truth Doesn't Make A Noise"  
  
by Jack White  
  
from the album De Stijl by The White Stripes  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
You've Really Got A Hold On Me  
  
In theory, Leomon could easily slaughter all seven of the humans entirely on his own, but he was well past the point of taking anything for granted by now. After all, Ogermon had taken quite a few things for granted and failed quite a few times in the past several hours, it was highly likely that he wouldn't be alive for several more. And if Leomon managed to fail as well after so many clear examples of what not to do ...Well, he would deserve everything that Devimon would do to him. So, instead of taking even the smallest chance and trying to destroy the humans on his own, he ran down to the main gateway into Infinity Mountain and gathered up the strongest of the guards. Of course, this meant that he would now have to start with the lowest of the children and work his way up when it would have been more expedient to kill the ones closest to the peak first, but it should have taken very little time to work his way through them. It SHOULD have, but it wasn't.  
  
Apparently, not taking anything for granted was the smartest thing Leomon could have done. Somehow, the human that had been thrown several floors down had managed to make it's way back up to where it had fallen from and was making good time along the hall. Quite frankly, such a jump should have been impossible; at least, the data Andromon had gathered said it was. Yet there it was, Leomon's senses were already keen on their own, but the Black Gears had made them virtually foolproof; there was no doubt that the human had made the jump. It looked like this might actually be a little fun after all.  
  
"Sir." one of the Devidramon behind him hissed "The human is about to catch up with the other two humans."  
  
"I know fool." Leomon bellowed "You're getting that sense from me, remember?"  
  
"But I thought that the plan was to catch it before they joined each other!"  
  
"The plan was to surround it." Leomon replied "We will not attack until we have the target surrounded. If the target becomes three targets before that time, so be it."  
  
"Understood." the Devidramon answered, submissively. Of course, what none of the Digimon would ever say, but were all thinking, was that surrounding this human was going to be difficult until they actually caught up with it, and that was becoming impossibly difficult. There was absolutely no doubt that the humans could not even begin to sense the presence of Digimon like Leomon could, and they were surprising their presence in a way that ought to have made them invisible to the Digivices, yet this human had managed to both navigate the maze and completely avoid becoming trapped at any point since he had begun tracking it. If the human had simply made one or two lucky turns, Leomon might have chalked it up to simple luck, but this so- called chase had been going on for nearly half an hour and the human had not messed up once. In fact, once Leomon decided to double back a few yards simply to see how the human would react. Sure enough, it stopped and seemed to look around, like it was trying to figure out what he was doing. Yes, that human had to be sensing him somehow. But how in the Digiverse was it doing it?  
  
"OK, they're back in the big hall again." Pandoramon said, making a grimacing expression that might have been comical in a different situation "What are you doing, Leomon. I know you're messed up now, but I made sure that nobody would be stupid. What are you doing?"  
  
"I'm telling you, he knows you're up here!" Matt insisted, carrying Pandoramon along.  
  
"No he doesn't! He doesn't!" Pandoramon shouted "The shield won't let him! I made it to do that! He doesn't know I'm helping you!"  
  
"Well I'm sure that he knows I can't tell where he is on my own." Matt replied "I know that I'd assume somebody was helping me if I were him."  
  
"No no no, don't say that." Pandoramon whimpered, suddenly looking very unhappy "Don't say you'd be like him."  
  
"What?" Matt asked, more than a little confused.  
  
"Leomon, he...When Devimon took him...I could...I saw" Pandoramon struggled, as if she wasn't really sure what she was saying until it was already coming out "Leomon didn't think, he...he felt. He just did what he felt like was right and...It made him do things he shouldn't have done...No, it made him not do things he should have done. Yes, that's it...I think, I'm not sure. I saw what was inside him when Devimon put the Gear in him, but it's so hard to keep straight"  
  
"Whatever, it's not important." Matt sighed.  
  
"NO! It is important!" Pandoramon insisted, now quite frightened "For you it's VERY important! You're going to be just like that...or you might be. I'm not sure how it works. Was that what would happen or just what might? Oooohhh...What was it?"  
  
"Really, it doesn't matter!" Matt interrupted, having no idea what Pandoramon was talking about and not really caring "Just tell me when Leomon is getting close, ok?"  
  
"Yes...Yes, it was what is going to happen" Pandoramon groaned, becoming increasingly sad "It is...You are going to do that all"  
  
"Huh? Do what?" Matt asked.  
  
"Everything" Pandoramon replied, more to herself than to Matt "Just what you feel like is right, not thinking about if it really is...That's why you won't do anything about it"  
  
"Do what?" Matt asked, actually beginning to get a bit interested in this lunatic's ramblings by this point.  
  
"No...No no no!" Pandoramon whimpered, pulling away from Matt and promptly falling to the floor "It's not fair...IT'S NOT FAIR!!! I...It showed me...I know so much and...It...AUGH!!! I CAN'T EVEN TALK ANYMORE!!!"  
  
"Um...OK" Matt muttered, trying to pull her back up, thoroughly confused "I think"  
  
"It's not supposed to be like this...I didn't used to be...This is all my fault, I built it all...I'm why you'll have to hurt so much" As Pandoramon continued to mutter to her herself, she slowly looked up at Matt and a strange thing happened. For a moment, just a moment, it seemed like a thick curtain behind her eyes was pulled away. For that moment, her white eyes weren't the hazy, alien orbs they had been; instead, it was like...like looking into a pair of diamonds. And it wasn't just her eyes that changed either: her whole body seemed to relax all of a sudden; dozens of odd contortions that Matt almost hadn't noticed just vanished and her frame seemed to become natural for the first time. It was as if a million hands that had been pulling her a million different directions just let go for a second.  
  
The difference, subtle as it might have been, was astounding.  
  
"I wish things could be different...I really do." Pandoramon whispered, gazing at Matt with the most intensely sad look he had ever seen. As she stared so helplessly at him, a pair of downright alien thoughts crept their way into Matt's mind. The first was a sudden, overwhelming desire to protect the poor creature before him; not against anything in particular, just an urge to keep her safe from anything. And the second thought was an almost startling realization of just how pretty Pandoramon actually was. Up until that point, she had been making all kinds of odd faces and bending herself in strange directions and generally behaving in an almost frightening manner.  
  
But now that she had calmed down, he realized that she was absolutely beautiful.  
  
Before Matt had a chance to say anything, or even think of something to say, Pandoramon lurched over violently and started to grimace again.  
  
"Two of them are moving again!" she shouted "They're going...Left, to the left! We need to go over that way!"  
  
"But we were almost to Sora and Mimi!" Matt complained, anything he had been thinking a moment ago being overwhelmed by his unhappiness with having to go in the opposite direction of his companions.  
  
"Don't worry. They'll be stuck." Pandoramon assured him, grinning in a manner that must have been intended to be comforting, but turned out rather disturbing "They've got a wall in the way, and there's a hole in the dead end in front of us, so we can go ahead and catch up with your friends!"  
  
"Um, OK. Let's go" Matt sighed, not about to argue with the only one who had an idea where Leomon was. Pandoramon seemed to be back to her old, uncoordinated self, so Matt slowly helped her up again. She tried to wrap her arm around Matt's neck again but, for just a moment, he was a bit embarrassed about it. If she had done it only a minute ago, he wouldn't have thought anything except maybe a stray thought about how little she weighed for someone her height. However, just enough of that...whatever-it- was that had broken it's way into Matt's thoughts a second ago remained to make him surprisingly flustered. It didn't last long though; Matt had become extraordinarily good at shutting thoughts that flustered him out of his head.  
  
After all, there was no reason to get all up tight because of some totally random thought that was only in his head for a moment, right?  
  
"I'm telling you! We ought to turn around and get him!" Mimi insisted yet again.  
  
"For the last time, Mimi, Matt told us to go ahead and find Joe and Tai, so that's what we're going to do!" Sora replied, not even bothering to look up from her Digivice this time.  
  
"But...COME ON!" Mimi whined "Something's wrong with him, I know it!"  
  
"Yeah, so do I. I was there too, remember?" Sora reminded her "Besides, not only is he moving, but he managed to get himself all the way up to our floor! If anything, he's doing better than we are!"  
  
"Then why hasn't he caught up with us, huh?" Mimi countered, gazing unhappily at Matt's dot on her screen "He's been going every single direction but ours!"  
  
"I...I...I don't know!" Sora stuttered, trying not to show that she had been wondering the same thing "I guess...Maybe he-"  
  
"Exactly! Something HAS to be wrong with him!" Mimi interrupted "So we'd better go see what it is!"  
  
"NO." Sora replied firmly "We've got to catch up with Joe and Tai first. After that, then we'll go get Matt. Who knows? Maybe he'll catch up with us by then?"  
  
"Yeah, if he doesn't wander all the way back to Japan first" Mimi muttered grumpily. For about a minute or so after that, neither of the girls said anything to each other. Then:  
  
"Really, Sora! I think we'd better go pick up-"  
  
"Mimi, stop it!"  
  
"NO! I WON'T STOP IT!" Mimi shouted, ironically coming to a halt as she said it "Something's wrong with Matt and I'm gonna find out what it is!"  
  
"Mimi, don't be like this!" Sora pleaded, definitely not in the mood for an argument at the moment.  
  
"Oh yeah? Well how should I be?" Mimi asked, sarcastically "I mean, Matt's only running around with who knows how many broken bones and stuff. I mean, I bet if Joe were here, he'd know all sorts of ways a person could be knocked senseless and start wandering around lost like...OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Now he's closer to Tai and Joe than we are!"  
  
"There, see? He is doing better than we are!" Sora replied, trying desperately to keep her cool.  
  
"That's not the point and you know it isn't!" Mimi shouted "He could very well be stumbling around half dead out there-"  
  
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?" Sora interrupted, much louder than she had intended "And if he is, what do you wanna do about it, huh? Do you even know? Of course you don't and neither do I, but Joe does! So if we did go back and Matt was half dead, we'd still have to run off to find Joe and bring him back; so we'll be saving everyone a lot of time if we just go straight to Joe first!"  
  
"Oh. OK" Mimi muttered, very much taken aback.  
  
"Now come on." Sora insisted, making her way back down the dark passage.  
  
"He really is closer to Joe and Tai than we are." Mimi pointed out after a short silence.  
  
"He must have found a hole in a wall somewhere." Sora suggested.  
  
"Oh, and now he's going away from them!" Mimi sighed "In fact he's heading straight...for...SORA! HE'S COMING TOWARDS US!!!"  
  
"WHAT?" Sora shouted, fumbling to get her Digivice screen off of Tai and Joe's dots and back on Matt's "Oh please, oh please, oh please...YES! YESYESYESYESYES!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME ON!!!"  
  
"Hey, wait up!" Mimi shouted as Sora took off down the dark hallway "What happened to going to get Joe first?"  
  
"Well, now that Matt is on the way to Joe, I don't see any harm in picking him up!" Sora laughed as she ran.  
  
"Nope, nothing wrong with that!" Mimi concurred "Just slow down a bit, will you? I'm tired enough as it is!"  
  
"Hey, the exercise will do you good!" Sora insisted, not intending to slow down for a moment.  
  
"Oh yeah, exercise. What do you call every single thing that's happened to me since I woke up on this dumb island?" Mimi replied, trying her best to catch up.  
  
"MATT! MATT, IS THAT YOU?" Sora shouted into the darkness.  
  
"Hey Sora!" answered a voice front eh distance "Remember me?"  
  
"Oh, thank God!" Sora laughed with relief "Do you have any idea how worried we were about you?"  
  
"Gee, I can't imagine why." Matt joked, slowing becoming visible in the dark.  
  
"Well, don't you worry, Joe's just a little ways up ahead. We'll figure out some way to get him down here and get you all fixed up and" Suddenly, Sora was able to make out Matt's silhouette clearly in the darkness ahead, but his wasn't the only silhouette she could see. Right next to him, in fact, hanging off of him, was a second silhouette; a familiar, winged silhouette.  
  
"WHOA!!! What's she doing here?" Sora shouted, coming to a screeching halt, and almost falling over herself in the process.  
  
"What's who doing where?" Mimi asked, finally catching up "AHHHH! It's the creepy girl I saw in the mansion!"  
  
"Don't worry! Don't worry! She's cool!" Matt insisted as Pandoramon quickly cowered behind him "She just wants to help us!"  
  
"Huh? what are you talking about?" Sora stuttered.  
  
"Her name's Pandoramon; she's the reason I was able to catch up with you two." Mat continued, trying to get Pandoramon to come out from behind his back.  
  
"Hey, your arm doesn't look broken to me!" Mimi interrupted.  
  
"Nope, she took care of that to!" Matt explained.  
  
"But...Why?" Sora asked "I mean, who is she? Why would she want to help you?"  
  
"That's a good question. Care to answer it, Pandoramon?" Matt replied, prodding his companion. However, the timid Digimon refused to say a word or even look up at the other two humans.  
  
"What's going on?" Mimi asked "It looks like she's scared of us."  
  
"Of course she's scared." Sora answered "She knows we've figured out that she had something to do with our `mysterious' leap from the mansion to this...wherever we are last night."  
  
"I'm sorry" Pandoramon whispered suddenly.  
  
"Hey, she said something!" Mimi interrupted.  
  
"That wasn't...I didn't...I shouldn't have done that." Pandoramon stammered "I'm sorry."  
  
"There, you see?" Matt insisted "She's OK."  
  
"No I'm not." Pandoramon objected, quietly.  
  
"Wait a minute, what?" Sora asked, getting more and more confused every second.  
  
"I'm not OK." Pandoramon insisted, starting to weep "It's my fault all of you are in here. All of this is my fault"  
  
"Oh no, not this again." Matt groaned "Look, the idea here is to shift the attention away from that stuff."  
  
"I'm sorry; didn't mean for all this." Pandoramon continued, oblivious to Matt's words "I didn't know what you were going to do afterwards. I didn't realize what was going on outside...I made a mistake"  
  
"Um...OK, what is she talking about?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Beats me. She's been going on like that for hours." Matt sighed "The motor's running, but I don't think there's anyone at the wheel."  
  
"That's why I'm down here. You're the only ones who can fix everything that I've done wrong. I done so much...So much" Pandoramon tried to continue, but could only fall to her knees and sob.  
  
"Um...Did I mention that she's kind of upset-able?" Matt asked, getting a little uncomfortable.  
  
"Hey...Hey there" Sora whispered, uncertainly inching her way over to Pandoramon.  
  
"Uh...What are doing, Sora?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Whoa, that's not a very good idea." Matt advised, quietly, as Pandoramon pulled away from Sora in fear "She's not to big on having people near her."  
  
"Don't be afraid, we're not going to hurt you." Sora insisted softly, ignoring Matt. She tried to put her hand on Pandoramon's shoulder, but she lurched away and clung to Matt's leg like a small child would her parent's.  
  
"Well, she sure seems big on being near you, Matt." Mimi observed.  
  
"It's all right. We believe you." Sora assured the trembling Digimon.  
  
"We do?" Mimi asked, not too sure herself.  
  
"At this point, I really don't think we can afford not to." Sora replied "We need all the help we can get."  
  
"Besides, she really couldn't hurt us if she tried." Matt pointed out "Just look at her."  
  
"Hey, yeah." Mimi muttered "She seemed a lot less...wussy when I saw her in the mansion. What happened?"  
  
"The...The Darkness...There was so much of it" Pandoramon explained, or tried to, anyway "It made a mess of everything when it...There's just so much to remember now, it's difficult to...I can't...staying focused is hard now. I don't...I've never known what hasn't happened yet before. It's weird."  
  
"Uh...OK, Whatever. She's nuts." Mimi sighed "Well, we found Matt! Now let's go get Joe and Tai!"  
  
"Well, don't get too set on moving quickly." Matt interrupted, helping Pandoramon stand up again "She's not really very good at walking, and don't get me started on her directions."  
  
"You mean you've been carrying her this whole time?" Sora asked.  
  
"Something like that." Matt answered "Actually, I've been more like a crutch."  
  
"Wow." Sora mused "No wonder you were going all over the place."  
  
"Actually, that was a case of some really weird directions." Matt replied "I'll explain later."  
  
"Well, here. Why don't you let me take her for a little bit." Sora offered.  
  
"No!" Pandoramon whimpered "I need to stay with Matt!"  
  
"Don't worry, he's not going anyplace!" Sora insisted, taking Pandoramon's arm. The second she touched her, however, Pandoramon unleashed an ear piercing scream and threw her arms around Matt's neck.  
  
"Eer...OK." Sora muttered, hoping the ringing in her ears would only be temporary "Maybe you should stay with Matt."  
  
"Um, Pandoramon?" Matt grunted, trying to pry his companion off of him "I would really like to be able to breathe right now"  
  
"Are you sure they're down there?" T.K. asked, squinting hard to try and see the bottom of the dark hole before him.  
  
"Well, not directly below." Izzy explained "However, it would appear that this hole opens into the same general passage as two of our companions."  
  
"I just wish we knew which two." T.K. sighed "Do you think Matt is one of them?"  
  
"There will be no way to determine that until we get down there." Izzy replied "Now all we need to do is figure out some manner of doing that."  
  
"Well, I'm not jumping down there, that's for sure." T.K. stated firmly "Not after what happened last time."  
  
"Duly noted, though you emerged relatively unscathed from that experience." Izzy pointed out "I'm the one who was injured."  
  
"Exactly!" T.K. laughed "I'm not gonna start limping around like that!"  
  
"Well, there does not to be any other holes that lead to this hallway, so there would be little point in limping anyplace at this point."  
  
"So what do we do, Izzy?"  
  
"I don't see anything we can do other than sit here and wait for them to come to us."  
  
"But...They're going AWAY from us." T.K. replied, confused.  
  
"Yes, but look at where they're headed." Izzy explained, pointing to the dots on the Digivice screen "These dots and the ones below them are moving to the same point, and they did the same thing roughly two hours ago. It seems very unlikely that they could manage to find their way through an environment such as this without some kind of guide; therefore, I believe that they have figured out how to use the map function of the Digivice just as we have."  
  
"So once they do whatever they're doing over there, they'll come get us?" T.K. interrupted.  
  
"That would be my guess." Izzy answered.  
  
"Alright!" T.K. laughed, settling in for a good wait "I just hope they don't take to long to get here...How long has it been since we ate anything, anyway?"  
  
"Too long." Izzy replied, rubbing his empty stomach.  
  
"I'll say." T.K. concurred "Right now, I could eat...three whole boxes of Lucky Charms, two - no, FOUR - whole pizzas, and enough pocky to choke an Elephant!"  
  
"The shear lack of any nutritional value in such a meal is absolutely astounding." Izzy commented, suddenly felling a little bit sick.  
  
"Well duh, that's what makes it good!" T.K. laughed.  
  
"Of course." Izzy sighed.  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute!" Tai shouted to his companion on the level below "What do you mean Leomon's in here?"  
  
"What do you think I mean?" Matt shouted back "He's on the level right below us, and we're not sure how many friends he's got with him!"  
  
"Well, that's just lovely." Joe groaned "We're dead. We are SO dead!"  
  
"Joe? Stop it." Sora stated firmly "This exact same thing happened to us just a few days ago back in the factory and we got out just fine."  
  
"Yeah, but Andromon was specifically trying NOT to kill us then." Matt pointed out "I doubt Leomon is worried about that right now."  
  
"You're not helping, Matt." Sora grunted through gritted teeth.  
  
"Besides, we had seven Digimon tagging along to help us out then!" Joe added "What the heck are we supposed to do on our own?"  
  
"We have ONE Digimon with us!" Mimi shouted, pointing at Pandoramon even though Joe and Tai couldn't see her through the dark.  
  
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Let's place all of our hopes in the hands of the one who got us in this whole mess in the first place." Joe scoffed.  
  
"Besides, what exactly does your mysterious friend down there say she can do?" Tai asked.  
  
"Hey, that's a pretty good question." Mimi muttered "She never really did explain just how she was going to help us. I mean, no offence, but you don't exactly look like much of a fighting machine, Pandoramon. How are you supposed to do anything to Leomon?"  
  
"She doesn't have to." Matt answered "As long as she can do whatever it is she does to sense him and his buddies and keep us away from them, it doesn't matter if she can't actually stop them."  
  
"But I can! I can!" Pandoramon objected "I can keep them from coming anywhere near me! I can!"  
  
"Uh huh, sure." Matt replied, dismissively "You can't even stand up on your own. Is Leomon supposed to trip over you?"  
  
"I don't have to stand up...Well, OK, maybe I do; but the important part is this!" Pandoramon insisted, waving her staff in Matt's face "As long as I have this, Leomon can come close to you, and neither can anyone else that I don't want!"  
  
"Oh, so you CAN fight?" Sora asked.  
  
"I don't have to, see this? See this part?" Pandoramon asked, pointing staff at Sora and wrapping her other arm around Matt's neck (nearly cutting off his air again) to point at the odd looking ring that seemed to be floating at the tip of the staff.  
  
"Yeah, what about it?" Sora asked, not sure what she was supposed to be looking for.  
  
"I made it. All by myself, I made it. I've had it for years. Even Devimon doesn't know I did it. It's my little secret!" Pandoramon explained, with a mischievous grin that almost looked painful.  
  
"Well, good for you. Why do we care?" Matt asked, pulling Pandoramon's arm off of his neck.  
  
"Because I made the Black Gears too, remember?" Pandoramon replied.  
  
"Whoa, wait!" Joe shouted "I don't remember that!"  
  
"When I made them, I also made this to stop them!" Pandoramon continued "I can use this micro-generator to project a barrier: a repelling field that will immobilize any Black Gears that come into contact with the field perimeter!"  
  
"Well, since Izzy's not here to figure out just what the heck that was, come again?" Tai asked.  
  
"Ooooh, let me try again. Um" Pandoramon muttered, trying to piece together some less technical words "It's a...Um...A wall, no, a net, that catches Black Gears. Any...Eer, if a Digimon has a Black Gear spinning inside it, it gets stuck and has to go back!"  
  
"Well, now!" Mimi laughed "That's a handy little thing to have!"  
  
"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute." Joe interrupted "You mean you built the Black Gears?"  
  
"That was a long time ago, Joe. Get over it!" Matt yelled, not wanting him to drive Pandoramon into yet another pity party.  
  
"Well, if she did. Then why the heck would she want to invent something that would make them useless?" Tai asked.  
  
"I dunno. I figured out how to do it, so I did." Pandoramon answered, matter-of-factly "Why else would I?"  
  
"Um...Whatever. Never mind." Tai replied "Now, what are we going to about getting you all up here?"  
  
"I can do it! I can do it!" Pandoramon yelled "Just like I helped Matt! He can tell you!"  
  
"Um, Well, lessee" Matt began "She's got this little rope trick thing she does where"  
  
"Velvet Strand!" Pandoramon shouted suddenly, pointing her arm up at the hole above and firing a thin, shimmering beam at the ceiling of Joe and Tai's hall.  
  
"GAH! What's that?" Joe shouted.  
  
"That's how I got out of that pile of rubble." Matt explained.  
  
"Go ahead. Climb up! It's OK!" Pandoramon said to Sora and Mimi.  
  
"What, climb on this?" Sora asked, eyeing the beam uncertainly "But it just looks like a beam of light! How can we...HEY! It's like a rope!"  
  
"Uh huh!" Pandoramon laughed, nodding her head vigorously "As long as you don't let go, you can climb just fine!"  
  
"Well, OK." Sora replied, making her way up the beam.  
  
"Oh no...GO FASTER! GO FASTER!!!" Pandoramon shouted.  
  
"What? What's the matter?" Matt demanded.  
  
"Leomon! Leomon's on this floor!" she shouted.  
  
"WHAT?" Mimi shrieked "How close is he?"  
  
"Not close, he's still far away." Pandoramon answered, wincing somewhat as she sensed him "But you still need to move fast."  
  
"No argument there!" Sora agreed, making her way up the beam. In a matter of minutes, both Sora and Mimi had managed to climb their way up to the next level without incident.  
  
"OK, Matt! Your turn!" Mimi shouted.  
  
"NO no no no, Matt comes with me!" Pandoramon insisted.  
  
"Hey, wait a minute. How exactly are you going to get up here anyway?" Sora asked "That beam is coming right out of our hand. How are you going to climb?"  
  
"Oh, I don't have to climb!" Pandoramon laughed.  
  
"Uh, guys? You might want to take a step or two away from the beam," Matt warned "unless you want to catch us, that is."  
  
"Er, whatever. What do you-" Joe began. Whatever he was planning to say, he forgot it when Pandoramon and Matt suddenly shot up the beam and landed right next to him "Oh...I see"  
  
"Well, that's a nice thing to have in a place like this." Sora muttered.  
  
"So, this is the mysterious Pandoramon." Tai mussed, getting much closer to the shy Digimon than she would have preferred. "HEY, WOW! You're pretty cute! You didn't say that-" before he could finish, Pandoramon brought her staff crashing down onto Tai's scull.  
  
"Hey, you really are useful to have around!" Matt commented, suddenly enjoying himself greatly.  
  
"Ouch" Tai moaned, rubbing considerable welt on his head "For such a scrawny thing, you pack one heck of a punch."  
  
"So, um, where are we going now?" Mimi asked "If Leomon's really don't there, I don't think it's a good idea to be hanging around here."  
  
"It's not, let's get moving." Matt agreed "If we're all here, that means T.K. and Izzy are above us in that direction. Let's go get them."  
  
"Sound like a plan to me." Sora replied "Do you think that-"  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Pandoramon screamed suddenly "OH NO OH NO OH NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!"  
  
"What? What's wrong?" Matt demanded.  
  
"Leomon! He's here!" Pandoramon answered, franticly "He's up here!"  
  
"What? But you said he was-" Tai began to object.  
  
"I know I did, but he's not far away any more, he's here! I don't know how!" Pandoramon shouted "We have to go, NOW!"  
  
"Where? Where is he?" Tai asked, franticly looking around in the dark.  
  
"We have to...We need to go that way!" Pandoramon insisted, pointing behind them.  
  
"But...T.K.'s the other way! We can't-" Matt objected.  
  
"We HAVE to go that way!" Pandoramon pleaded, tugging at Matt's arm "We have to! We have to!"  
  
"All right, all right!" Matt shouted, reluctantly "But you'd better figure out a way to get us to T.K. VERY quickly!"  
  
"Come on, already! Let's go!" Tai shouted already making his way down the hall.  
  
"Don't get your hair in a wad, we're coming!" Matt replied, asking off with the rest of the group. No sooner had they started running than they found themselves coming up to a fork in the hall."  
  
"Um, Pandoramon? A little help?" Joe asked, tapping his Digivice "both of these look equally bad on the map."  
  
"Uh...Go to the left. NO! The right! We need to go right!" Pandoramon shouted.  
  
"That didn't inspire a lot of confidence in me." Joe muttered, going right anyway.  
  
"Oh no, oh no, oh no. He's getting closer. Much too close. We need to go faster!" Pandoramon whimpered.  
  
"I don't get it, when did he get so fast?" Matt asked "He was sure taking his time before!"  
  
"I don't understand!" Pandoramon moaned, her fractured mind racing "He wasn't...He was being careful before. He wouldn't...If he's making a move now, that means...DAMN! How did I not remember this?"  
  
"What? See what?" Matt demanded.  
  
"The service corridor!" Pandoramon explained, aghast that she'd overlooked it "There's a passage way inside the wall next to us! They blocked it up before they put you down here, but Leomon must have opened it up! Oh no...He's going to surround us!  
  
"What happened to your big fancy Black Gear net?" Joe asked.  
  
"Yeah, I though you said that he couldn't get near us!" Tai added.  
  
"I can't...Is isn't...I have to concentrate very hard to make it work!" Pandoramon explained "I can't do it while we're moving like this! We'd have to...They've got us." Just as the words left her mouth, the walls in front of and behind the group erupted in a spray of fire and debris, knocking the six of them to the floor. Looking up, they could see a myriad of strange and frightening outlines emerging from the clouds of dust.  
  
"I don't know how you managed to evade me for this long," a low, booming voice declared from one of the outlines "but this chase ends here."  
  
"Uh oh, is that who I think it is?" Sora asked, timidly.  
  
"Leomon." Pandoramon whispered, coldly.  
  
"Defiance of Devimon such as yours must bring punishment." Leomon continued, emerging from the smoke and dust. Even then, it was difficult to see him. He seemed to be covered in some kind of dark film that nearly blended in with the walls around him. The only part of his body that stood out in the dark were two glowing red eyes. "I have been instructed to insure that it does."  
  
"Matt" Pandoramon said, quietly "You need to get in the service corridor; it's empty now."  
  
"But how?" Matt asked "In case you haven't noticed, we're surrounded."  
  
"Exactly." Pandoramon answered, much more steadily than usual as she started to prop herself up with her staff "So we don't have to worry about running anymore."  
  
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Mimi shouted.  
  
"The barrier, you fool!" Pandoramon shouted with a firm intensity that none of them has seen in her before "Just get ready to move!"  
  
"Pandoramon?" Leomon shouted, aghast "What sort of betrayal is this?"  
  
"Oh, if you only knew what I now know about betrayal." Pandoramon replied with an angry grin, somehow standing almost straight at this point "You'd beg me to kill you right here."  
  
"I don't know what madness has possessed you, Pandoramon," Leomon declared, lunging at Pandoramon "but I will present what's left of you to Lord Devimon along with the humans' heads!"  
  
"Not while I'm around you won't!" Pandoramon shouted, thrusting her staff out in front of her. Suddenly, a blinding blue light erupted from the ring at the tip, bringing Leomon and his companions to a halt.  
  
"WHOA! What is this?" Matt shouted, his eyes, having spent nearly two days in the dark, struggling to cope with the incredible light. Next to him, almost engulfed in the glow, Pandoramon's staff was erupting with wave after wave of light. But wasn't the light that was holding Matt's attention, it was the Digimon holding the staff. Even without the light, it was almost impossible to recognize her as the same Pandoramon who only seconds before could barely stand on her own. Now she stood as steadily as if she had never had a problem doing so in her life. Stranger still, her dark dress was drifting around and wrapping along with the beams of light, almost as if she was standing underwater. Not just her clothes, but her hair and even her wings were being lifted up against gravity, yet Matt was still firmly planted on the ground. And then there was her face...Pandoramon was gazing directly into the eyes of Leomon with an intensity that he hadn't imagined she was capable of.  
  
"You aren't going to come one step closer unless I say you can," she whispered with a cold fury "and that is NOT going to happen."  
  
Roughly twenty feet around the cluster of humans on all sides, some kind of bubble had erected itself between them and Lemon's forces. It looked just like the surface of a pool of water, except on it's side and without the water. Leomon rabidly fought to penetrate the barrier, but to no avail. His limbs were passing through as if it wasn't there, but something was holding his chest back like a brick wall.  
  
"Whoa...You rock, Pandoramon!" Tai muttered, looking around him in a bit of a daze.  
  
"I'll say" Mimi concurred, rubbing her sore eyes.  
  
"You don't have a lot of time." Pandoramon quietly instructed "Get in the corridor before they have time to figure out that's what your doing."  
  
"Um, yes Ma'am!" Joe replied, quickly moving to one of the holes the Digimon has blown in the wall.  
  
"Well, are you coming?" Sora shouted to Matt, who was still sitting next to Pandoramon.  
  
"Of course I am!" Matt shouted back "Come on, Pandoramon, let's get out of here!"  
  
"Hold on!" Pandoramon replied, slowly stepping back towards the corridor "Do you want me to lose my concentration and drop this whole thing?"  
  
"Well, can't you concentrate just a little bit faster?" Mimi asked, gazing uncomfortably at the Digimon just on the other side of the barrier "This is REALLY giving me the creeps!"  
  
"Don't worry, the barrier moves as I do." Pandoramon assured her "Those fellows are going to be well out of striking range in just a moment."  
  
"So, um, if you don't mind my asking, when did you learn to walk?" Matt asked, very confused.  
  
"Hey, I haven't always been a rambling invalid." Pandoramon replied with a grin "Maybe I just like having you carry me around?"  
  
"Oh, come on!" Matt scoffed "There's no was you were faking all that, so what happened?"  
  
"Look, I just needed a little kick in the pants to remember how, and this was it." Pandoramon explained "Now hurry up and get in that corridor!"  
  
"Grrrrrrrr...Very well." Leomon muttered, giving up on breaking through the barrier "THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME! GET TO EVERY EXIT OF THAT CORRIDOR AND WAIT FOR THEM! Rest assured, Pandoramon, Lord Devimon will hear of your treachery!"  
  
"Well, then, you tell Lord Devimon that I will not sit by and allow him to feed the Digital World to destruction." Pandoramon instructed "Nor will I allow him to harm these humans."  
  
"You would do well to not overestimate the strength of your little barrier." Leomon warned as he turned to leave "It may protect you from me at the moment, but it will not hold Lord Devimon. I promise you that you will not leave this mountain alive."  
  
"Perhaps not." Pandoramon quietly said as she stepped into the corridor "But I won't be the only one." As soon as Pandoramon was inside the corridor, she lowered her staff and let the barrier fall. As it did, she raised her had up towards the ceiling and projected another "Velvet Strand". This time, however, it started to bunch up all over the ceiling in front of her. Before anyone had a chance to ask what she was doing, the strand began to glow brightly and then exploded, bringing the ceiling down in front of the opening to the corridor. As soon as this was done, Pandoramon's body went limp collapsed onto the floor.  
  
"Whoa! Are you alright?" Matt shouted, brushing a few stray pieces of ceiling off of Pandoramon and helping her up.  
  
"You...There isn't much time." Pandoramon said faintly "The east passage...there is a way out of this corridor before the...Leomon doesn't know about it yet, but Devimon will tell him. You have to get there first."  
  
"Well? What are we waiting for?" Tai demanded "Let's go!"  
  
"Alright, alright! Let's go!" Matt shouted, throwing Pandoramon's arms around his neck and carrying her on his back as he caught up with his companions. The whole time, Matt's mind raced furiously to figure out just what exactly had happened to Pandoramon back there, without much success, but it would be some time before he realized that she had the prettiest smile he'd ever seen.  
  
"and then she collapsed the ceiling, blocking off the corridor. I've stationed guards at all of the exits, so we will know it when they attempt to emerge." Leomon stated, wrapping up his report to Devimon. He had expected Devimon to chide him for allowing the humans to get the better of him, but he did not. In fact, Devimon said nothing whatsoever, he didn't even look at Leomon. Instead, he simply stood there, starring out into empty space.  
  
"There may yet be some way to trace Pandoramon, or at least penetrate this... barrier she's concocted. What is it you wish for me to do, Master?" Leomon asked, receiving nothing but more silence.  
  
"Lord Devimon," Kokuwamon announced nervously from behind Leomon "we have just finished our investigation of the transmitter room. It appears that someone has torn something out of the operations console. There are pieces of it thrown all over the place, though I'm not exactly sure which parts they are. I never actually did maintenance on any of the controls so...Um, never mind. Anyway, there also seems to be some kind of shaft opened in the floor of the room, I have a team checking it right now to see where it leads. Do you have any further instructions?"  
  
Once again, Devimon responded by not responding at all.  
  
"Um...I guess I should go and help them check out that shaft?" Kokuwamon inquired. When he didn't get an answer, he figured that he probably ought to and left.  
  
"I don't believe Ogermon has made a report on his search for Centarumon and Unimon, Master, would you like me to check on his progress?" Leomon asked, receiving no answer. He started to leave and check on Ogermon, but stopped long enough to say "Master I...I'm sorry Pandoramon has betrayed you. I know how long she has served you. But I promise that she will be made to pay for her crimes!"  
  
For just a moment, it looked like Devimon might actually say something in response to that; but, instead, he simply sighed and continued to stare silently into the dark.  
  
"I'm telling you, she has to be faking it!" Tai insisted "Just make her walk!"  
  
"Hey, no way!" Sora replied firmly "I saw the way she fell the last time we tried that. That was not a fake fall!"  
  
"Well, she sure could walk well back there with Leomon!" Tai pointed out.  
  
"That wasn't...It was different then." Pandoramon insisted from her perch on Matt's back "It was easier to concentrate."  
  
"What, on walking?" Joe asked.  
  
"On everything!" Pandoramon corrected "Now I...Everything gets...It's too hard to concentrate now. I...My mind keeps wandering all the time, I don't...I can't stay focused."  
  
"So, why was it easier to concentrate back there?" Matt asked.  
  
"Well, because I had to take care of you, of course!" Pandoramon replied with a smile and a sharp laugh. Looking at her then, Matt couldn't help but be startled by how totally different Pandoramon looked now. The "smile" on her face now could only be called a smile because that was apparently what Pandoramon had had in mind. The result, however, looked more like someone had grabbed onto her cheeks and given them a tug. He couldn't help but be taken aback at how drastic the change was.  
  
"Hey, why did...Why are you" Pandoramon stuttered, noticing the odd look on Matt's face "You're scared of me"  
  
"What?" Matt replied, startled "No I'm not! What are you talking about?"  
  
"Yes you are! I could see it." Pandoramon insisted "You ARE scared of me!"  
  
"No I'm not!" Matt said firmly "It's just...I didn't realize how different you look now from how you did before. You know? It just kind of threw me for a second, that's all."  
  
"Oh" Pandoramon whispered sadly, gazing down at the ground "I understand"  
  
"OK, good." Matt muttered, glancing over at Mimi's Digivice to see where they were.  
  
"You know" Pandoramon continued, softly "I used to be like that all the time"  
  
"Uh huh, that's nice." Matt replied, not really paying attention.  
  
"Did you like me better that way?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Uh, I dunno, maybe. I wasn't paying attention." Matt muttered off- handedly.  
  
"Oh...OK." Pandoramon whimpered, falling silent.  
  
"Oh, Matt." Mimi sighed, with more than a hint of disgust "You are hopeless, you know that? Totally, utterly hopeless!"  
  
"What?" Matt objected "What did I do?"  
  
"Nothing, that's the point!" Mimi insisted.  
  
"What?" Matt objected, totally unsure what was going on.  
  
"Forget it." Mimi replied, waving him off "Just forget it!"  
  
"Oh no! STOP!" Pandoramon shouted suddenly.  
  
"What? What's going on?" Sora inquired, involuntarily looking around her.  
  
"There's a guard...No, two guard in the next hall." Pandoramon replied "About...Thirty feet away from the intersection you need to go through."  
  
"Oh great. Is there any way around them?" Matt asked, wishing he could pull his Digivice out of his pocket without allowing Pandoramon to drop to the floor.  
  
"No. No way around." Pandoramon answered, unhappily.  
  
"And we sure can't go back." Sora added "Leomon will be finding that doorway we used to get out of the corridor any minute now."  
  
"Wait a minute" Tai whispered, creeping up to the intersection between halls "Which direction are these guys?"  
  
"To the left." Pandoramon whispered back.  
  
"Ok...Let's see" Tai muttered to himself, taking a quick peek down the hall in question "Alright! They're having a snack or something! Neither one of `em are looking this way!"  
  
"Huh?" Joe asked "How can you tell, in all this dark?"  
  
"They've got a little campfire or something going." Tai explained "Guess they don't like the dark any more than we do."  
  
"Are you sure they're not looking this way?" Matt asked "Absolutely positive?"  
  
"Yeah, man!" Tai insisted "They're totally zoned out!"  
  
"Hmmm...In that case" Matt whispered, looking for himself "Where do we need to go after this intersection?"  
  
"There's another intersection just after this one." Pandoramon explained "None of these halls were blocked up since you weren't supposed to know how to get in here. See they, wait, that's not what you asked...When you get to the next intersection, go right."  
  
"Alright." Matt decided "We're going across while those guys aren't looking. I think it goes without saying to be quiet."  
  
"Nobody sneeze." Joe added, taking a deep breath so that he wouldn't have to go through the noisy trouble of breathing.  
  
With that, the band of intrepid humans set out across the hall as slowly and carefully as they could, only to discover just how noisy being "quiet" can actually be. Having spent so much time talking (or, as the case usually was, arguing), none of them had ever really taken the time to notice just how many sounds resulted from clothing rubbing against each other or a shoe, or even a bare foot, landing on a stone floor. Frankly, if felt like they couldn't have been making more of a racket if they had been dragging a garbage can full of angry cats behind them. Even the sound of their own hearts beating seemed too loud, and the knowledge that the slightest detectable sound could signal the end of their lives had a way of making their heats beat very heavily. It also didn't help much that the faint campfire the Digimon has set up was just bright enough to throw a few long, disproportionate shadows on the floor before them before being engulfed by the murky dark. In their tense to the point of irrational state, the highly tense humans couldn't bring themselves to step in the Digimon's shadows, as if they might somehow alert them to their presence by walking on them. To top it all off, the hall seemed to be far wider than it had seemed before setting out across it, like the other end was inching itself away from the humans to torment them. Finally, after an excruciatingly long time that was actually less than a minute, the nervous pack of humans made it into the hall waiting on the other side. Now wanting to spend another second near those guards, they ran headfirst into the next intersectionand right on top of a sleeping Devidramon.  
  
"Whoa! Where'd he come from?" Mimi shrieked, as the now half-awake Digimon squirmed his way out from underneath the startled humans standing on him.  
  
"I don't know, and I don't care!" Tai shouted, grabbing Mimi and dashing in the opposite direction on the groggy Devidramon "Let's just get out of here before that guy realizes that he didn't dream us!"  
  
"But...But Pandoramon said that we need to go the other way!" Mimi protested, even though she was running just as fast as Tai.  
  
"Well, she didn't say anything about any big, sleeping Digimon being in the way, so what does she know?" Tai pointed out.  
  
"Hey, yeah. Why didn't you warn us about that guy, Pandoramon?...Pandoramon?" with a start, Mimi suddenly realized that she and Tai were the only people in hall "Wha...Where is everybody...AHHHH!!! DID THAT THING GET THEM?"  
  
"Hold on, hold on...Let me see" Tai shouted, franticly checking his Digivice "AWWW, come on!!! There was a fork in the hall! Everyone else is in the other one!"  
  
"But...Where are we?" Mimi asked, checking her own Digivice.  
  
"How should I know?" Tai replied "We're here, and they're over there!"  
  
"But...Pandoramon's the only one who knows where we're going!" Mimi protested "How...How are we gonna get back to the others?"  
  
"I don't know, I don't see any connections other than the one we were just in," Tai answered "and there's no way I'm going back there again!"  
  
"Then...You mean...We're lost?" Mimi whimpered.  
  
"If you ask me, we've been lost this whole time." Tai replied "Now we're just not listening to some wacko chick steering us in circles."  
  
"Exactly! We're all alone now!!!" Mimi whined "What'll we do if we run into another...another one of those things?"  
  
"We'll do what we're doing right now!" Tai answered "We'll RUN!"  
  
"Ohhh" Mimi moaned, sick and tired of running "Where are you Palmon?"  
  
If there was one virtue of combat that few would-be warriors failed to grasp the importance of, it was patience. A true warrior must always wait for the right moment, and ONLY the right moment, to strike. Rushing into a battle as soon as it is immediately convenient to do so never fails to result in mistakes and complications. True, a powerful warrior ought to have the adaptability and strength to get himself out of an unexpected predicament, but the truly seasoned warrior will wait until the timing is exactly right, regardless of how long it takes. Very few of Unimon and Centarumon's students had ever grasped the importance of such patience, not when they had to put it into practice, anyway. Leomon certainly didn't, and look at where it got him. No, Unimon and Centarumon were going to make sure that the time was just right before they made their move.  
  
Still, it was somewhat frustrating to be perched right across the hall for the seven Digidestined Digimon and not be able to do anything about it.  
  
"Well? What do you think?" Unimon whispered, eyeing the row of guards inform of the Digimon's holding cell, not even thinking about the ones inside the cell yet.  
  
"These fellows out here aren't the problem." Centaromon replied "It's the ones inside the cell that will be a problem. The second they get a hint that something is wrong out here, they'll barricade themselves inside, and it's anyone's guess what they'll do to those poor Digimon if they start to panic."  
  
"And, of course, waiting for a shift change won't do us any good." Unimon added "Then there will just be twice as many guards."  
  
"Well...You could always go down there and say that you're delivering a pizza." Centarumon suggested.  
  
"Surely you jest!" Unimon replied with a laugh "Still, I just might if it'll get me out of this little borough of yours. Couldn't you have cut our just a few more inches?"  
  
"I was going to, but then those Mekanorimon showed up." Centarumon explained "I doubt that they would have been considerate enough to allow me to make it any wider before he hid in here."  
  
"Maybe so," Unimon sighed "but I intend to complain about it until the second we get out of here."  
  
"Come on! Haven't Unimon and Centarumon showed up yet?" Ogermon inquired, emerging from one of the hallways to the side.  
  
"Negative, sir." the leader of the guard replied.  
  
"Aww, this is ridiculous!" Ogermon whined "They've gotta be someplace in this mountain! They're idiots, but not wusses; they're not gonna leave until they make one huge mess of things in here...Alright you guys; come with me?"  
  
"Which ones, sir?" the leader replied.  
  
"ALL OF YOU!!!" Ogermon bellowed "I need every warm body I can spare looking for those two, and there's already ten guards inside the cell! You tell them to come out and fill in for you!"  
  
"But...We were instructed to have a full compliment of guards maintaining eye contact with the prisoners!"  
  
"THEY'RE SO DOPED UP THEY CAN"T MOVE!!!" Ogermon laughed "What are they gonna do? Now come on before I drag you all in front of Lord Devimon and let him teach you to respect your superiors!"  
  
Sufficiently frightened of the consequences of not obeying, the row of guards followed Ogermon as the second group of guards filed out of the cell and took up their places outside the door.  
  
"Thank the heavens for pure stupidity." Unimon muttered with a grin as Ogermon's group disappeared from view. Once they were sure no one was around to hear, Centarumon blew out the wall separating them from the cell's guards. They were dead and the door was blown open before most of the debris had a chance to hid the floor. In the cell, sprawled unceremoniously on the floor, were the seven Digimon.  
  
"Well now, don't you all look heroic?" Centarumon snickered, scooping several of the half-conscious Digimon up and placing them on Unimon's back.  
  
"Hey...I know you two" Tentomon babbled, with a highly slurred voice "Just...Give me a second to come up with your names"  
  
"You just take it easy there, little one." Unimon laughed "We'd better find someplace else to lay low and wait for the drugs to get out of their system."  
  
"I have a feeling a bite to eat wouldn't hurt either." Centarumon added, checking to make sure no one was in the hall outside.  
  
"Eat...I know how to do that" Gabumon muttered sleepily.  
  
"Hey, you be quiet up there!" Unimon scolded "We've got to be quiet or Devimon will find us!"  
  
"Devi...mon?" Biyomon asked from Centarumon's arms "Isn't he a friend of ours?"  
  
"Just calm down, you all." Centarumon replied, making his way down the hall  
  
"You'll remember everything once your heads have had a chance to clear up."  
  
"Hey...I know someone with a really funny looking head." Patamon gurgled "He had this green thing growing out of the top...I wonder what ever happened to him?"  
  
"But...I don't understand" T.K. groaned, getting more than a little tired of propping Izzy up as he walked "Why did they split up?"  
  
"Presumably for the same reason they didn't make it to our position." Izzy postulated "Something must have intercepted them, and now they're fleeing it."  
  
"Yeah, I know that's what you said earlier," T.K. replied "but I was thinking. If some kind of bad guy or something is chasing them, why isn't there one chasing us right now?"  
  
"I was wondering that myself." Izzy confessed "After all, the fact that someone was around to knock the floor out from beneath us before strongly suggests that something has been keeping track of our position; yet I have yet to see a single change in the Digivice hazard indicator for hours."  
  
"So what do you think is going on?" T.K. asked.  
  
"I suppose it could be that Devimon is more interested in preventing the others from remaining in a group." Izzy suggested "He might with to deal with us in smaller groups."  
  
"But you and me are already a really small group." T.K. pointed out "If it were me, I'd go after us first."  
  
"Yes, as would I, unfortunately." Izzy agreed, uneasily "Therefore, it would stand to reason that the others have somehow done something that has made them more of a threat to Devimon than we currently are."  
  
"I wonder what it was they did?" T.K. wondered.  
  
"That's a good question, seeing that none of us are exactly much of a threat to Devimon without a herd of Digimon with us." Izzy commented "I suppose that the only thing they could possibly do would be to steal something that Devimon greatly desires to have back, although I have no idea whatsoever what they could possibly come across in here that Devimon could want so badly."  
  
"I am so sorry I didn't notice him sooner. I am SO sorry!" Pandoramon whimpered, as she had for nearly half an hour since their encounter with the Devidramon "I was just so worried about the other two guards that I didn't sense him! I'm sorry"  
  
"Look, we get it, all right?" Matt sighed "We know that you're sorry!"  
  
"Don't worry about it, Pandoramon." Sora assured her "Even our Digivices were too caught up in being worried about those other guys to notice him. You don't need to beat yourself up for it."  
  
"Yes I do" Pandoramon insisted "I needed...I should have known he was there."  
  
"Um, don't you think we've gotten far enough away from anything to take a rest?" Joe asked "I REALLY need a rest right about now."  
  
"Well, here's your chance to redeem yourself." Matt said to Pandoramon "Are there any unfriendly Digimon hanging around here?"  
  
"No...No one's nearby." Pandoramon responded after a moment.  
  
"Well then, let's kick back for a minute." Matt replied, carefully letting Pandoramon down before taking a seat himself.  
  
"I wonder how Tai and Mimi are doing." Sora mused, rubbing her tired legs.  
  
"I'm sure they're fine." Joe answered, checking his map "According to this, they'll get to Izzy and T.K. a while before we do."  
  
"Oh, that's just swell." Matt grunted, for some reason very annoyed at the thought of Tai finding T.K. before he did.  
  
"Say, just how long do you think that we've been in here, anyway?" Joe wondered "I'd like to know if I can officially be considered to be starving yet.  
  
"You have been inside this labyrinth for roughly seventeen and one half hours, plus five hour in a holding cell while preparations were being made." Pandoramon answered, absentmindedly.  
  
"Well, no wonder I'm starving!" Joe moaned "Not to mention dieing of thirst."  
  
"OH! You...You're hungry?" Pandoramon shouted, jerking forward violently "Are you all hungry?"  
  
"Yeah, why?" Matt asked.  
  
"I'm sorry, here you go." Pandoramon said, reaching her arm up her sleeve and pulling out a kind of a flask "I wish you had said so earlier. This will make you feel better!"  
  
"What is it?" Matt asked, taking the flask and giving it a shake "Is it water?"  
  
"Oh, much better than water! I fixed it myself!" Pandoramon answered "Don't worry, it's good for you!"  
  
"Whoa, wait a minute, Matt!" Joe interrupted "That stuff may be good for a Digimon, but that doesn't mean it'll be the least bit safe for us to touch, especially if she's been screwing around with it!"  
  
"But my Healing Touch worked just fine on Matt!" Pandoramon objected, clearly angry, but in a non-threatening, almost childish way "Humans aren't that different from Digimon! Well, I don't think...Um, maybe...Eer, I don't know"  
  
"Well, seeing that we all may very well die in here anyway" Matt muttered with a shrug, opening the flask and taking a generous swallow of the contents. The watery concoction didn't have much of a flavor to it, but once he swallowed he felt like he had just downed half of a sandwich in a single, tremendous bite.  
  
"Whoa!" Matt laughed, whipping a few stray trickles from his mouth "That's some powerful stuff!"  
  
"Really? Is it OK?" Joe asked.  
  
"Well, I don't feel dead." Matt replied, tossing the flask to Joe "Here, knock yourself out. Just make sure that you leave enough for when we catch up with T.K."  
  
"Not to mention Izzy, Mimi, and Tai." Sora added.  
  
"Well, you know what I mean." Matt said with a sigh.  
  
"So...You feel better now?" Pandoramon inquired, looking over Matt curiously.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." Matt muttered, stretching "Oh, that's right. Don't you want some...whatever that stuff is called?"  
  
"No...I'm not very hungry" Pandoramon answered before falling silent. No one else said much of anything either for several minutes until Pandoramon piped up again "Matt?"  
  
"Yeah? What is it?" Matt asked, having been thinking about nothing in particular and not too happy about his concentration being broken.  
  
"How...What do you think of me?" she asked meekly.  
  
"Uh...What?" Matt stuttered, confused "I...Uh, I don't know."  
  
"Oh" Pandoramon sighed, going silent for a minute or so before asking "Do you like me, Matt?"  
  
"W-Wha...Do I...Um" Matt stammered, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable "I...Uh...Well, um, I...Uh...I mean...Well, I guess, um...Now that...Uh, I...Y-yeah, I-I guess so. Sure."  
  
"Hehe, well I like you too." Pandoramon replied with a grin. For a moment, just a brief one, a trace of the Pandoramon Matt had already glimpsed twice before appeared again. Unlike the many contorted, painful looking expressions Pandoramon had been making, the faint trace of a smile that has slipped onto Pandoramon's lips seemed totally soft and natural. As soon as matt noticed it, however, Pandoramon's face had again become the strange, vaguely unsettling visage it was before.  
  
"Man...And they say that I'm bad with girls. He's a real lady's man, huh?" Joe whisper to Sora, who seemed to be gazing at Matt and Pandoramon very intently "Um, Sora? Hey, are you there?"  
  
"Huh?" Sora started, jumping slightly.  
  
"Whoa, sorry about that. Are you OK?" Joe asked.  
  
"Yeah! Yeah, sure, I'm fine." Sora said, with a laugh "I guess I just kind of zoned out there for a sec'."  
  
"Yeah, guess so." Joe agreed, deciding to give up on any conversation for the time being and try to get just a little bit of sleep while they were stopped. Sora decided to do the same, though not before casting another, involuntary glance over at Matt and Pandoramon.  
  
"No, I'm not going to stop, Tai, now stop asking!" Mimi shouted for the tenth time in the past five minutes.  
  
"Mimi, I can't even believe you're saying that!" Tai groaned "You the one who said you were tired and hungry and thirsty!"  
  
"Yeah, but I'm gonna be tired and hungry and thirsty whether we stop or not." Mimi replied "And there's no WAY I'm gonna just sit around and wait for some giant, bloodthirsty Digimon to sneak up behind me and suck my brains out! I'm gong to go find T.K. and Izzy and that's final!"  
  
"Aww, I don't believe this." Tai whined "You're starting to sound just like Matt."  
  
"Well, you know what? Thank you!" Mimi shot back "At least matt usually has some idea of what to do, unlike you slacker!"  
  
"Oh yeah, like you should be telling ME about being a slacker." Tai laughed "When have you ever done any grand service to humanity?"  
  
"Hey, I actually have a job, thank you!" Mimi protested.  
  
"Yeah, what?" Tai asked, mockingly "Standing around in some cloths store squirting perfume into people's faces?"  
  
"Now, don't you make fun of those poor girls." Mimi warned "I've seen how angry some guys get when they do that. That job takes a lot of guts!"  
  
"Good thing the brain isn't a gut." Tai muttered to himself, just loud enough for Mimi to hear.  
  
"You know what?" Mimi said, through gritted teeth "I'm really starting to see why Matt doesn't like you."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Tai asked, absentmindedly "Matt doesn't like anybody!"  
  
"Well...OK, I guess you have a point there." Mimi conceded "But he doesn't like you more than he doesn't like everyone else."  
  
"Yeah, right. I just make him show it more." Tai corrected "You guys are all just too scared to stand up to him."  
  
"Why would anybody want to? I wouldn't" Mimi laughed.  
  
"Why, just `cause he's Mr. Dreamboat?" Tai replied "Whatever you say."  
  
"Well, it's not like you'd know about that kind of thing." Mimi snickered "A stoner like you is about as far away from `dreamboat' as you can get."  
  
"And I'm supposed to mind?" Tai shot back "Heck, I'm glad about it if being a `dreamboat' also means being a self-absorbed, smart-alecky, suicidal, and probably homicidal American immigrant."  
  
"Whoa, hey, wait a minute!" Mimi interrupted "My parents are American immigrants, thank you."  
  
"Yeah, whatever." Tai shrugged "You know what I mean."  
  
"And, besides, you're in no position to talk about being a 'self-absorbed smart-aleck' anyway." Mimi added.  
  
"Awww, that's just your opinion." Tai muttered "At least I'm not taking directions from some twitchy, winged lunatic."  
  
"Ooh, don't pick on Pandoramon." Mimi objected.  
  
"Hey, come on." Tai groaned "Don't tell me you actually think she's not a total nutjob."  
  
"Well, sure she is." Mimi answered "That's why only a jerk would start picking on her."  
  
"What, you mean like tripping a blind guy?" Tai asked, not really caring.  
  
"Exactly, though I wouldn't be surprised if you did that too." Mimi sighed.  
  
"Hey, even I know that there's difference between assaulting a blind guy and pointing out a Digimon who can't blink without looking like she's passing a stone."  
  
"Augh! Tai, you are disgusting!" Mimi groaned.  
  
"Come on!" Tai protested "You're no fun at all, you know that?"  
  
"Awww, that's just your opinion." Mimi joked.  
  
"Seriously, when did you turn into Miss Serious?" Tai asked "You're usually all about having a good time."  
  
"Well, you just wait until we're not trapped in a pitch black maze with bloodthirsty killing machines looking for us," Mimi answered, checking her Digivice "then I'll show you a good time."  
  
"Well, I-Wha...Did...Hey, wait a minute!" Tai stammered, suddenly becoming very uncomfortable as his face turned a deep shade of red "What did you just say?"  
  
"Huh? I just...Uh...ACK!!!" Mimi shrieked, her own face turning very red as she realized just what she'd said "NO, Wait, I didn't...TAI, YOU PERV! STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT!!!!"  
  
"What are you yelling at ME for?" Tai shouted "You're the one who said it!"  
  
"Yeah, well you're the one who thought what you're thinking right now!" Mimi insisted, backing a few steps away from Tai.  
  
"HUH?" Tai shouted "Just what am I supposed to be thinking?"  
  
"You know what?" Mimi shouted back "I'm afraid to ask, you creep!"  
  
"Why am I the creep?" Tai asked "I'm not the one who offered-"  
  
"That's it!" Mimi declared "Next fork in the hall we come too, you're going off on your own!"  
  
"Oh, just give it up, will you?" Tai sighed.  
  
"No, I will not give it up!" Mimi insisted "Not if you can't at least pretend to act like a gentleman once in your life, not that you'd know what one was if one walked up and kicked you in the head!"  
  
"Oh, for crying out loud" Tai moaned, exasperated "We had better catch up with somebody soon"  
  
"What are we waiting for?" Agumon demanded, weekly attempting to stand up "We can take Devimon and his palls on right...in...just a few more minutes"  
  
"I admire your determination, but that alone won't bring you your strength back." Centarumon cautioned "And you won't be of much use to your companions if you fall over and break your head open."  
  
"But we've got to get down there and help our friends!" Palmon protested, trying to rub the last traces of grogginess out of her eyes, without much success.  
  
"Agreed, but you'll wait until you can stand on our own two feet first." Unimon replied.  
  
"But how long will that take?" Gomamon asked, in the middle of an involuntary yawn "It's been over an hour already!"  
  
"You shouldn't need to rest for much longer," Unimon answered "but until the point that you're ready you will REST!"  
  
"But I don't wanna!" Patamon whined "I wanna go find T.K!"  
  
"Yeah! And I want to find Sora!" Biyomon agreed.  
  
"Quiet all of you!" Centarumon insisted "I hear another guard coming!"  
  
"Well, if we weren't spending our time hiding in here, we would have to worry about any guard." Tentomon whispered.  
  
"Listen," Centarumon responded, curtly "I'm sure your companions are busy resting themselves, so you should too!"  
  
"Alright, I think that's enough rest." Matt grunted, stretching "In fact we've probably spent too much time laying around here" Looking around him, Matt realized that he was the only one of the group who hadn't fallen asleep. Joe was sprawled quite comically across the stone floor with his gangly limbs in all manner of directions and a sizeable puddle of drool forming next to his mouth. Sora, in contrast, was lying quite gracefully beside him, appearing far calmer than she ought to have been in their current situation. But then, Sora always had a kind of calm and graceful air about her. Then there was Pandoramon, whom he knew was asleep, since she had decided to use him as her pillow. Except for the that incident with Leomon, which Matt was still trying to figure out, there was usually very little about Pandoramon that could be considered either calm or graceful. She usually spent most of the time twitching or bobbing around in odd directions. Even now, asleep on Matt's lap, she still seemed to be unnaturally tense and jumped slightly on occasion. It was really quite annoying, especially since she insisted on clinging onto him as he walked. Of more occasions than Matt could count, he had nearly fallen flat on his face thanks to one of Pandoramon's sudden jerks or twitches. Her highly illuminating manner of speech wasn't much better, either. Matt figured that for every one thought that Pandoramon finished, there had to be at least four that she started and then forgot about. In fact, a part of Matt wanted to believe that she was deliberately trying to get on Matt's nerves, she certainly was succeeding at it.  
  
But, at the same time, there was something else about Pandoramon that...Well, Matt really wasn't entirely sure what it was, but there was something about her. For one thing, as much as Matt avoided dwelling on it, there was no denying that Pandoramon was spectacularly pretty, regardless of what odd directions she might pull her face. And there was also no denying that Pandoramon may well have been the kindest person...No, wait, the kindest Digimon he had ever met. It seemed like half of the words that came out of her mouth were apologies for when she felt like she'd done something to bother Matt...And there it was again, that sudden urge that he was supposed to be protecting her somehow. It was definitely not the sort of urge Matt got very often, chivalry didn't exactly run very deep in his veins. Besides, if anyone was protecting anyone, Pandoramon was protecting him.  
  
Why was she so bent on hanging around him, anyway? That was the thing that bugged Matt the most, he simply couldn't figure out what reason Pandoramon had for clinging to him so obsessively. It wasn't as if he had done anything for her or anything. The only time he had seen her before was when she put him to sleep in the mansion, and he didn't seem to recall do anything that would have made a very good impression on her, not that good anyway. Pandoramon had mentioned something that seemed to be intended along the lines of an explanation once or twice, but like just about everything else she said, Matt could make heads or tails of what she was getting at. Well, he could wonder about that later, right now he needed to get to T.K.  
  
"Hey, wake up." Matt said, nudging Pandoramon "It's time to get moving again."  
  
"Huh...Hello, Matt." Pandoramon yawned, groggily.  
  
"Come on, T.K.'s probably starving by now." Matt muttered, trying to get Pandoramon to sit up "We need to get him some of that miracle drink of yours."  
  
"I had a dream about you, Matt." Pandoramon said, not quite awake yet "You and me were in a really dark place. It was...It kind of looked like this place, but there were no walls. Everything was open, and I...I was the way I used to be."  
  
"Huh?" Matt asked, not quite sure why he was interested "What do you mean?"  
  
"Then...Before...When I wasn't so...Well, you saw. I was almost back to normal when I made the barrier."  
  
"Wait...You mean you really aren't usually so...weird?" Matt asked.  
  
"Not before, but...I don't know if I can...if I'll ever be like that again" Pandoramon answered, sadly "But I was just like that in my dream. And you...You were sad. Very sad."  
  
"You don't say" Matt muttered, not exactly sure he liked the direction Pandoramon's little dream was going "Any idea why?"  
  
"Yes...So many thing...I'm sorry" Pandoramon whispered, her hazy white eyes beginning to fill with tears "I'm so sorry"  
  
"What, what's wrong?"  
  
"Terrible things are about to happen. To you...To everyone...I'm sorry that you're going to have to hurt so much, I really am." Pandoramon told him. It may have been the dead serious expression on her face as she spoke, or maybe it was just the fact that he was already too high strung, but for whatever reason, Matt found himself getting genuinely frightened by what Pandoramon was saying.  
  
"Huh? Wha...How long have I been asleep?" Sora yawned, apparently roused by the conversation.  
  
"Huh?" Matt started, suddenly snapped back to reality "Uh...It's been a while. We, um, really need to get going."  
  
"Oh...OK" Sora replied, slowly rising to her feet "Are you alright?"  
  
"What?" Matt asked, pushing that crazy moment of fear out of his head "Yeah, I'm fine, why?"  
  
"Nothing, I guess" Sora said, giving Joe a gentle kick "Hey, time to get up!"  
  
"Just a few more minutes" Joe muttered.  
  
"Oh no you don't." Matt corrected, giving Joe a far less gentle kick of his own "We're moving now; get up or get left behind."  
  
"Alright, alright, I'm up! I'm up!" Joe stuttered, fumbling around in an attempt to stand.  
  
"Come on!" Matt insisted "We've been hanging around here way too long already!"  
  
"I heard you, I'm coming!" Joe said, finally getting to his feet.  
  
"Good, now let's go." Matt declared, setting of into the dark to track down T.K....  
  
To Be Continued... 


	12. All Together Now

Legend of the Digidestined  
  
Book 1  
  
Chapter 12  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost  
  
Tell me who are you?  
  
Think that you know what to do  
  
Impossible, yes  
  
But it's true  
  
I Think that you know what to do  
  
Yeah, sure that you know what to do  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost  
  
Tell me who are you?  
  
Think that you know what to do  
  
Impossible, yes  
  
But it's true  
  
I think that you know what to do  
  
Girl, sure that you know what to do  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost, little girl  
  
You're lost  
  
"You're Lost, Little Girl"  
  
lyrics by Jim Morrison  
  
from the album Strange Days  
  
by The Doors  
  
Book 1  
  
Chapter 12  
  
All Together Now  
  
It was all about to come to a head now. Everything Devimon had planed for, everything he hadn't planed for, it was all about to take place. The labyrinth idea had failed. Without interruption, the humans would most likely make it to the peak of Infinity Mountain in just over two hours; and with Centarumon and Unimon bringing their Digimon companions into the Labyrinth as well, there was little chance of interrupting them. There was no doubt that, in roughly an hour, Devimon would have to personally face the Digidestined. He should have been concerned; in fact, he should have been terrified. But he simply didn't care.  
  
The only think that mattered was that Pandoramon had betrayed him. Devimon knew he should have been concentrating on the looming confrontation, but his mind was totally preoccupied by the blow that little Digimon had dealt him. How could she do this to him? How could he have let her do it? What could he have done differently to change her mind? His failure to contain the Digidestined meant nothing compared to his failure to keep Pandoramon from turning her back on him.  
  
Chances were Pandoramon didn't even know what kind of effect her betrayal would have on him. Devimon had been given a tremendous position by The Darkness and he always had to act in a manner befitting that position; he could not allow himself the luxury of expressing much fondness for any one of his followers. But there was no denying that, from the first time Devimon saw her, he had been very fond of Pandoramon. "Had been" were the important words, as, even if Devimon could avoid punishing Pandoramon for her betrayal, there was no way he would ever get her back. He knew for certain now that she did, in fact, attempt to contact The Darkness, which meant that the Digimon he had known for so many years before had been virtually destroyed; her mind shattered beyond repair.  
  
Devimon clenched his fists tightly at the thought, driving his lengthy claws deep into his own palms. He felt like he had to hurt something. In fact, for a second, he almost cursed The Darkness itself for taking Pandoramon away from him. How could something be right and just and then...No, that was pointless. The Darkness had warned repeatedly about the dangers of another Digimon attempting to contact It, and Pandoramon knew it. There was no use in blaming It for what she had done; Pandoramon's fate was of her own making.  
  
Now, more than ever, Devimon hoped that The Darkness would utterly erase the Digital World from existence. There was nothing left for him in it any more.  
  
"Watch it," Centarumon whispered, holding Gabumon and Gomamon behind him "There's four more guards up at that crossing."  
  
"Oh, I'm sick of all this sneaking around!" Gomamon grunted trying to peak around the legs of the much larger Digimon "Let's go bust some heads!"  
  
"I agree!" Gabumon added "Who knows what danger Matt could be in right now? We need to hurry up and get down to the labyrinth!"  
  
"Quite true." Centarumon said, slightly amused "But just how quickly do you think we'll be moving if we have to step over the fading bodies of ever single Digimon in Infinity Mountain to get there?"  
  
"Centarumon's right!" Biyomon scolded "We need to get as far as we can before we start wasting time fighting!"  
  
"Whatever," Gomamon sighed "but I'd still feel a lot better if I was hitting something."  
  
"You can hit me if you want!" Patamon offered.  
  
"That's enough of that." Unimon interrupted "You should save up that fighting spirit for when we're in a real fight."  
  
"Yeah, but that'll take forever at this rate." Palmon whined.  
  
"Just hold on." Centarumon said, peaking around the corner at the guards milling about down the hall "Those four are clearly not planning on sticking around for long, they're waiting for someone to come get them. We'll go when the coast is clear."  
  
"But there's just four of them!" Agumon objected "Why do we have to wait?"  
  
"Because, little one," Centarumon answered, quietly yet imposing "we have been training and practicing the arts of war since a time that even we barely remember, we stood on the ruined plains of Server before whole armies during the revolution, we looked into the eyes of the Dark Masters themselves, and we walked away in one piece to tell the tale. You, on the other hand, have not, so you will do as we tell you too."  
  
"That sounds like a good plan." Agumon said, timidly.  
  
"Of course it does." Centarumon grunted, contentedly.  
  
"Here they come." Unimon whispered, pushing the Digimon near him back down the side passage they had been in "Back into the hall, all of you!"  
  
"but I thought the whole idea was to let the labyrinth take care of the humans by itself." one of the guards said to its companions.  
  
"But that was when the humans were alone down there." the leader of the group explained "Now that Pandoramon's down there too, the plans have changed, so let's get into position."  
  
"Wait a minute" Unimon whispered, genuinely startled "Did I just here what I thought I heard?"  
  
"I never though I'd see they day;" Centarumon said, trying hard to suppress the urge to laugh out loud "Devimon's pet angel has flown the coop!"  
  
"Pandoramon" Tentomon muttered to himself "I've heard that name before."  
  
"A know-nothing know-it-all like you sure ought to have." Centarumon replied "Lesser minds have called her the most brilliant Digimon who ever lived."  
  
"Oh yeah!" Tentomon exclaimed "Now I remember; she's the one who designed the system of platforms back at Systems Canyon! Wow, she must be brilliant to throw something like that together!"  
  
"Especially seeing that she did most of it just to kill time while all the stronger Digimon were off in Server." Unimon added "I think she may actually have done some work on the Temple of Quadra, too."  
  
"So, you two knew this Pandoramon?" Biyomon asked.  
  
"Well, not personally, at least." Unimon added "But we're all very well acquainted with her handiwork, the Black Gears."  
  
"You mean, the same" Tentomon stuttered "Well, maybe she's not that brilliant."  
  
"No one ever said that intelligence equaled common sense." Unimon explained "When Myotismon first named Devimon regent of File Island, he was basically a big, winged figurehead on top of a mountain who didn't have any real power. But somehow he managed to sweet talk Pandoramon into building Black Gears for him, and...Well, you know the rest just as well as anyone."  
  
"Then what convinced her to help us?" Palmon asked.  
  
"Who cares? We need all the help we can get!" Gomamon scolded, as if he feared Pandoramon would hear and change her mind "Let's not look a gift Unimon in the mouth...Um, pardon the expression, sir."  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Centarumon said, going over the situation in his head "A character with a history like Pandoramon's doesn't inspire much trust right away. She might be a part of some kind of scheme Devimon's got cooking in that horned head of his."  
  
"I doubt that." Unimon replied "Sneaky, backstabbing plans aren't Devimon's style."  
  
"What, sneaky and backstabbing like setting up nice warm beds of us and dragging us into this dungeon in our sleep?" Centarumon snickered.  
  
"Of course!" Unimon laughed "If it was his style, he'd have done a better job at it and we wouldn't be having such an easy time screwing it up!"  
  
"Speaking of which, can we go now?" Patamon asked "I wanna find T.K.!"  
  
"Alright, I think the coast is clear." Centarumon said, taking a quick look around "Let's go."  
  
"I still would like to know why Pandoramon is helping us if she's supposed to be Devimon's pal." Palmon piped up as the group moved down the hall.  
  
"Hopefully, she just came to her senses." Gabumon answered.  
  
"Or she came up with a better plan than Devimon's." Centarumon muttered.  
  
"That would require Devimon admitting that his first idea was wrong, and what are the chances of that?" Unimon pointed out "No, if she's really helping them down there, it can't be with Devimon's permission, and no one would risk Devimon's wrath by disobeying him like that without hoping that he wouldn't be in a position to punish for very much longer."  
  
"I sure hope you're right." Centarumon sighed "I wonder just what it is she's doing down there, anyway?"  
  
"It was really hard working out just what kind of... um, oh yeah, waves... or even if they were waves, the transmitter needed to be designed to use, so I started out just making it sensitive to them all, but that would have fried even Devimon's brain, so I ever even bothered testing it that way. So, I finally figured out that the Darkness must be a kind of a Digimon like consciousness, or maybe a human like consciousness, boy wouldn't it be something if all this time Devimon has been talking to a human like you all of this time? Well, no probably not. If it is a human, it's nothing like you at all, but then you're the only humans I've ever met, so I'm not sure...At least, I think you're the only humans I've ever met."  
  
"Okay, Sora, what did I say that sounded like `please tell me a story'?" Matt asked, growing weary of Pandoramon's stream of consciousness chatter.  
  
"Well, look at it this way;" Sora said "at least she's getting words out easier now."  
  
"Yeah, but it'd be nice if she was actually saying something that mattered." Matt replied, having gave up on making any sense out of her ramblings some time ago.  
  
"Speak for yourself, this stuff sounds pretty important to me." Joe interrupted "I have no idea what it means, but it sounds important anyway."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Pandoramon apologized, looking a little embarrassed "Am I boring you?"  
  
"Oh, NO!" Sora insisted, not wanting Pandoramon to get depressed again "You just go on talking about...whatever it was."  
  
"Okay...Um" Pandoramon muttered "What was I talking about, anyway?"  
  
"Oh, come on!" Matt groaned "You mean you weren't paying attention either?"  
  
"I don't know!" Pandoramon whimpered "It's hard-"  
  
"It's hard to concentrate, I know." Matt interrupted "Never mind, talk about whatever you want, just don't start crying again!"  
  
"Hey, Pandoramon?" Joe asked "Do you know how Devimon wound up on File island?"  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?" Matt asked.  
  
"Well, I mean, we're supposed to be destined to defeat the guy, right?" Joe explained "If we're going to do that, it'd probably be helpful if we knew where he came from."  
  
"Well, I guess that could be important." Sora mused.  
  
"Oh, sure! Sure!" Pandoramon shouted, happily "I can tell you anything you want to know about Devimon!"  
  
"Oh boy." Matt sighed "Let's see how long it takes this train of thought to get lost."  
  
"Okay, Devimon used to live out on the continent of Server somewhere in the Memory Wastelands, I'm not really sure, since I've never been off File Island before." Pandoramon began "Anyway, he was one of the first to join Myotismon in deposing the Dark Masters. After that-"  
  
"Whoa, who's that?" Sora interrupted.  
  
"Huh? Who? Where?" Pandoramon shouted, looking around nervously.  
  
"No, I mean what you were talking about." Sora laughed.  
  
"Oh, but you already know about Myotismon and the Dark Masters and all that- " Pandoramon began, somewhat confused "Oh, wait! No you don't, not yet! Sorry about that, it's just so hard to keep it all straight. Well, first things first. The Dark Masters used to rule the Digiworld, and now Myotismon, Devimon, and a bunch of other Digimon do instead. So, Myotismon gave Devimon File Island, Devimon says its so that Myotismon could keep him away from The Darkness."  
  
"Now, what's the deal with this `Darkness' business, anyway?" Joe asked "You keep mentioning it like it's some kind of person or Digimon or something."  
  
"Oh, THAT'S what I was talking about before!" Pandoramon said with a laugh "Thanks! Devimon found The Darkness out in the Wastelands in this really big special rift. Devimon thought that The Darkness was some kind of being that lived in the rift, but that's not what I think. I think that it's actually living some kind of parallel world to the Digital World and the rift is a distortion of the barriers between those world and that's how it's communication with Devimon."  
  
"Okay, I'm lost now." Sora whispered to Matt.  
  
"I haven't even tried to keep up." Matt replied.  
  
"Wait a minute." Joe interrupted again "You just spent thirty minute going on about this transmitter or whatever it was that you built for Devimon to talk to this thing. Why did you need to do that if the guy can just waltz up to it and talk that way?"  
  
"Because he can't because Myotismon won't let him near it!" Pandoramon answered.  
  
"But of course!" Sora said.  
  
"Anyway, Devimon came here and told everyone that Myotismon had put him in charge. Nobody really paid much attention to him at first, actually." Pandoramon continued, beginning to look downcast again "Nobody wanted to risk war by throwing him out, and he really didn't have enough supporters to make anyone do anything."  
  
"Then why did you start helping him?" Matt asked, absent mindedly.  
  
"I was stupid, that's why" Pandoramon sighed "I was stupid and I wanted to feel smart, so I went and did the opposite of what everyone else said I should have done...Look what it got me: File Island is a ghetto, the whole Digital World is about to be destroyed, I can't even remember what I was talking about a minute ago...and now you all are having to suffer for it all too."  
  
"Don't start apologizing again." Matt warned her "We really do believe that you're sorry, okay?"  
  
"Okay" Pandoramon sighed "What was I talking about?"  
  
"Nothing." Matt told her "Just keep an eye out, or whatever you use, for any more Digimon."  
  
"But I haven't sensed any more in ages!" Pandoramon said "It's like everyone's pulled back to the peak of the mountain, that's really weird."  
  
"Maybe we've got Devimon spooked?" Joe suggested "That's good right?"  
  
"Not good enough." Matt complained, looking at the map on his Digivice "Even at this rate Tai and Mimi will get to T.K. before we do."  
  
"Hey, that's better than Leomon getting there first, right?" Sora pointed out.  
  
"Only by a little bit." Matt grumbled.  
  
"Tai...That's the creepy one with the weird hair, right?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"There, see? You're not that crazy!" Matt replied with a laugh.  
  
"Oh, man. Matt is going to be so jealous that we're gonna get to T.K. and Izzy first!" Tai laughed "I bet he's talking all kinds of trash about me right now!"  
  
"Why are you happy that he's probably talking trash about you?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Because it's fun to get under his skin, that's why!" Tai replied.  
  
"That's just stupid." Mimi sighed "I mean, do you like it when he gets under you skin?"  
  
"Of course not!" Tai explained "That's why I always try to get under his first!"  
  
"Like I said, stupid." Mimi groaned "What is it about the guy that you don't like?"  
  
"Mimi, there are some things in this life that just are." Tai answered "It's best that we don't waste time questioning them."  
  
"You mean like why there's no brain underneath all that hair?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Ha ha ha." Tai snickered "Well, it looks like we're coming up on our long lost travel buddies. Better get ready to catch some falling kids."  
  
"Oh, yeah. That'll be the day." Mimi scoffed.  
  
"Hey, is someone down there?" a voice called from above.  
  
"Yeah, but one half of this someone doesn't feel like helping you guys get down from there." Tai shouted back.  
  
"Don't listen to him!" Mimi interrupted "Izzy? T.K.? Is that you?"  
  
"Hi Mimi! Hi Tai!" T.K. answered "It's us!"  
  
"You know, we've been looking all over for you clowns, where ya been?" Tai asked.  
  
"Well, I don't believe that it would be fair to say that you've found us yet." Izzy said "There are still quite a few feet between us."  
  
"Oh, don't worry about that, we can catch ya!" Tai assured them "Just aim for our digivices!"  
  
"Excuse me!" Mimi protested "But I never agreed to that plan!"  
  
"Oh, come on!" Tai replied "Why do have to complain about everything?"  
  
"Because I've got good reasons to!" Mimi informed him "I mean, I can't catch a beach ball in broad daylight! How am I supposed to catch a kid?"  
  
"There shouldn't be any need for you to worry." Izzy said "We're the ones who will have to aim, you can simply stay in one spot."  
  
"Aim's not what I'm worried about!" Mimi protested "Just how much do you guys weigh? I mean, I'm not a body builder or anything!"  
  
"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that." Tai muttered.  
  
"Obviously, you need to catch both of them then!" Mimi continued.  
  
"But Mimi, Tai's just as skinny as you are!" T.K. pointed out "If he can do it, why can't you?"  
  
"Hey, yeah!" Tai laughed "He's got ya there!"  
  
"Oh, thanks a lot T.K." Mimi grumbled "Fine, fine. Let's just get this over with then."  
  
"Okay, can you two see our digivices all right?" Tai asked.  
  
"I believe so." Izzy answered "Let us know when you're ready for us to jump."  
  
"All right, on the count of three." Tai announced "One, two, THREE!"  
  
In a moment, Tai saw T.K. falling out of the think darkness straight towards him. Well, not exactly straight; if that were the case, he would have landed safely in Tai's arms. Instead, T.K. arived with just enough of a curve that he landed right on top of Tai's head, sending them both tumbling to the floor in a heap.  
  
"Ow... I guess the digivices aren't as bright as I thought." Tai groaned, peeling T.K. off of his head.  
  
"Hehehe, I guess you're hair's not at thick as I thought." T.K. laughed.  
  
"Well, at least it wasn't Izzy flying at my head. That would have hurt a lot more. Speaking of whom-" Tai said, starting to look over to see if Izzy had made it down all right. Before he had a chance to turn his head, though, a red faced and clearly unhappy Mimi stormed past him.  
  
"Uh, Mimi?" Tai started to ask before a withering glance shut him up. Finally looking over to where Mimi had been standing, he found an equally embarrassed and somewhat dazed Izzy sitting quietly on the floor.  
  
"Uh oh." Tai asked "Did you land in a bad place?"  
  
"I believe that was a situation in which there was no such thing as a good place." Izzy moaned, trying to figure out just what happened himself.  
  
"Well, that's it." Matt sighed, looking at his map "Tai found `em. Looks like they're heading back this way."  
  
"Hurrah!" Pandoramon briefly cheered before she could catch herself "OH! Sorry, I forgot!"  
  
"Whatever, let's just see if we can wind up in the same place." Matt groaned.  
  
"So, what'll we do when we actually are all together?" Joe asked "I don't think we ever figured that out."  
  
"We'll get up to toe top of this dumb mountain and find where they're keeping Biyomon and the others, that's what we'll do." Sora answered "You can take us there, right Pandoramon?"  
  
"Absolutely." Pandoramon declared "They didn't move a thing up at the top, so it'll a lot easier to get around than it is down here."  
  
"Or a lot easier for Devimon's goons to get us." Matt added "You said that he'd pulled everyone out of this maze; what if he's waiting for us?"  
  
"He probably will be, especially now that he knows I'm down here with you." Pandoramon admitted.  
  
"HUH?" Joe shrieked "But you never said anything about...I mean, there's just the seven of us and...Oh man, we're doomed!"  
  
"Yep, you just get more and more useful." Matt grunted, not quite aware that he'd said it out loud "Thanks for everything."  
  
"Oh, real nice, Matt." Sora sighed.  
  
"I know...I'm sorry" Pandoramon moaned "Even when I help I just make things worse, huh?"  
  
"I FORBID YOU TO START CRYING AGAIN!" Matt bellowed.  
  
"I know, but I can't help it" Pandoramon whimpered.  
  
"Well, try!" Matt replied, curtly.  
  
"You're not going to help things any by shouting at her!" Sora scolded "That's just going to make her feel worse!"  
  
"And what'll letting her go off on a crying fit do?" Matt asked.  
  
"A little crying fit will make her feel a lot better than a big one, which is what will happen if you keep yelling at her!" Sora shouted "Maybe if you'd consider the feeling of someone other than yourself, you'd realize it!"  
  
"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!!!" Pandoramon shouted, covering her ears "Just stop...I can't take fighting right now"  
  
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry" Sora apologized, rather embarrassed at herself for raising her voice like that "That was pretty sooth of me, huh? I try to stop you from yelling, and what do I start doing?"  
  
"Something like that." Matt muttered.  
  
"Okay, this is the part where you say it's all right since you weren't acting much better and apologize for it." Sora whispered, giving him a slight nudge on the shoulder. Matt didn't respond outside of a grunt, but the truth was that he wanted to apologize. Not just for that little spat, either, he wanted to apologize for the way he'd been acting ever since they'd arived in Infinity Mountain, especially to Pandoramon. Why was he always giving her such a hard time? Matt usually had no regrets whatsoever for cutting people down (something he had gotten pretty good at), but that was because he knew they all had it coming. As much as he would have liked it, he knew there was no way he could say that about Pandoramon.  
  
Matt didn't pretend to understand just what had happened to Pandoramon to make her so loopy, but he knew that she wasn't trying to be a pain. In fact, she hadn't tried to be anything but helpful the whole time, and she really had been far more help than she had been a hindrance. It should have been easy for Matt to put up with her at least until they were out of the mountain, so why did he keep loosing his cool? Matt was starting to loose track of the times he'd spouted off before he even had a chance to think about what he was saying. It almost felt like he was turning into Tai, a thought that made him physically ill. Matt knew he wasn't a thoughtless clod like Tai, so why was he acting like it? He knew Pandoramon didn't deserved to be shouted at; in fact... well...The fact was, if Matt heard someone else talk to her the way he had been, he'd break half the bones in their body. So why couldn't he keep himself from doing it? He'd never had this much trouble keeping himself under control before  
  
Probably because he had never really tried it before. When Matt actually made himself think about it, he realized this was the first time he'd actually been in a situation where he had to put up with someone without getting angry at the. Mom was never around, of course, so he'd never had to put up with her, and Dad just caved in and ignored it whenever Matt got mad at him, so there was never any reason not to. Nobody ever cared about him getting mad at teachers, so he hid that, and his friends...well, that hadn't been an issue in many years. The only person alive that Matt could conceivably have held his tongue in front of was T.K., but he'd never needed to. After all, it had been years since he'd seen him for more than an afternoon at a time. T.K. was always gone well before Matt would have had a chance to get angry about something. What if he really couldn't keep his mouth shut?  
  
And, to top it all off, why couldn't he bring himself to apologize to her?  
  
"Um, not to complain or anything" Joe said meekly "But when are we going to come up with a plan for dealing with all of the mean, bloodthirsty Digimon that are apparently waiting for us at the top of this stupid mountain?"  
  
"Well, let's see, there's seven of you" Pandoramon thought aloud, apparently having already forgot about her latest depression "And there are twelve Digimon up there...No, what am I saying, there are twelve commanders, and they all have...Well, actually, Devimon is the only commander, so really all those guys aren't much different from any of the foot solders. Well, sure, there are some varying levels of intelligence depending on the programming of the Black Gear in their system-"  
  
"Pandoramon?" Matt interrupted "The point?"  
  
"What point?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"That's what I thought." Matt sighed, reminding himself not to strangle her as long as he could.  
  
"Oh, right! A plan!" Pandoramon exclaimed "Now let's see...How many of you are there again?"  
  
"So, THIS is what Devimon has been up to." Centarumon muttered, glancing around the grimy, hastily arranged hallways before turning to Unimon "Anything?"  
  
"I THINK I've got their sent, but it's a long way off." Unimon said, taking several sniffs of the air "They must be quite a few levels down."  
  
"Not to mention the fact that this place stinks." Gomamon said, covering his nose to get his point across "How can you smell anything else?"  
  
"I got used to all sorts of bad smells a long time ago." Unimon explained "Now I can just filter them out."  
  
"Well that's a neat trick." Gabumon said "How can I learn to do that?"  
  
"Spend a lot of time babysitting little Rookie Digimon." Unimon said, trying hard not to grin "It's worked wonders for me!"  
  
"Hey, that's not funny!" Palmon objected "Well, not very funny, anyway."  
  
"Well, we'd better hurry up and start moving along." Centarumon said "I've been getting a very bad feeling about things lately."  
  
"No kidding." Gomamon laughed "Which one of us hasn't been having a bad feeling since we went into the stupid mountain?"  
  
"I mean a worse feeling than usual." Centarumon corrected "Warrior's intuition. If you spend enough time around enemy attacks, you start to smell them coming."  
  
"Like Unimon?" Patamon asked.  
  
"Never mind, let's just get going." Centarumon said "We'd better find those kids before something else does."  
  
Ogermon entered the command room absolutely convinced that he would never leave it again. He was sure that Devimon was going to end it all right there. He'd seen him do it to dozens of other Digimon who had screwed up in one way or another, and boy had Ogermon screwed up. Not that he couldn't have found the Digidestined eventually, of course, Ogermon could have found anything given enough time; but Devimon wasn't interested in giving Ogermon enough time. Now this was it; Ogermon's glorious, amazing, beautiful life was about to end.  
  
"Ogermon" Devimon quietly said, keeping his back turned to the Digimon.  
  
"I can still find them, master! I just need a little more time!" Ogermon pleaded "A few more hours, that's all!"  
  
"Shut up." Devimon hissed "You couldn't find Centarumon and Unimon if they were hiding in an empty room and you had a year to do it. What good will a few more hours do?"  
  
"Well, you never know" Ogermon whimpered.  
  
"There's an army of Digimon in the mountain who are far better equipped to do that than you. In fact, they're better equipped to do ANYTHING than you are." Devimon continued "But, believe it or not, I've actually found a task that only you can perform."  
  
"HUH?" Ogermon gasped, grasping anxiously at any chance of extending his life a little longer "ALL RIGHT!!! Sure thing, boss! You just name it and I'll be all over it! What do I need to do?"  
  
"Take whatever support you need and go down into the labyrinth and find Pandoramon." Devimon instructed "I want her brought back alive and unharmed, understood?"  
  
"Huh? Well, I guess, but I thought that when Leomon" Ogermon began to ask before a rare flood of understanding flooded his modestly sized brain "Hey, YEAH! That's right! Great plan, Boss! I'll get right on it!"  
  
"You had better." Devimon warned "And if you find a way to screw this one up, it will be the last thing you ever do."  
  
"Uh, yeah, I kinda figured that." Ogermon gulped as he ran off to find some support.  
  
"Ya know, Izzy," Tai grunted "if you just weren't so smart, your brain would be lighter and you wouldn't weigh this much."  
  
"Even if a level of intelligence could somehow affect the weight of my gray matter," Izzy objected from his perch on Tai's back "I doubt that a matter of a few pounds would be enough that you would not be complaining anyway."  
  
"Besides, you're not the one with a screwed up ankle, Tai." Mimi pointed out "How would YOU like it if you couldn't walk and WE were complaining about how much you weigh?"  
  
"First of all, I have had a screwed up ankle before, thank you." Tai answered "And any way, you just plain wouldn't carry me even if I really COULDN'T walk!"  
  
"That's not true!" Mimi insisted "I'd be happy to carry you if there was no possible other way and I absolutely, positively, had to!"  
  
"In that case, why don't YOU carry our little cripple for a while?" Tai asked.  
  
"Because I don't absolutely, positively have to!" Mimi answered, matter-of- factly "We've got you!"  
  
"You know, for such a lazy girl, she certainly has a knack for producing impeccable logic." Izzy commented.  
  
"I guess that's a sort of a comment, so thank, I guess." Mimi responded.  
  
"What about me?" T.K. asked from below "Would you carry me?"  
  
"You bet I would!' Mimi said with a grin "Want a ride right now?"  
  
"Sure!" T.K. laughed as Mimi lifted him up onto her shoulders.  
  
"HEY!" Tai shouted "Why are you so much nicer to him?"  
  
"Because he's a lot cuter than you, that's why!" Mimi declared "I'm much more likely to cooperate with a boy if he's cute."  
  
"Well that figures" Tai sighed.  
  
"You really think I'm cute?" T.K. asked.  
  
"You bet I do, ya big stud!" Mimi said with a wink.  
  
"Hehehe, thanks!" T.K. laughed, briefly turning around to stick his tongue out at Tai.  
  
"Yeah, real cute." Tai muttered.  
  
"What a devious little child," Izzy commented "manipulating Mimi like that."  
  
"Yeah, I'm jealous too." Tai responded.  
  
"Hey, do you hear something?" Mimi asked, coming to a stop.  
  
"Huh?" Tai said, looking around by reflex "What do you mean?"  
  
"I'm not sure, but it kind of sounds like there's a commotion up ahead." Mimi whispered.  
  
"You think it's Matt?" T.K. asked, excitedly.  
  
"Not according to the Digivices," Izzy answered, checking the little contraption "all the other dots are still a while away."  
  
"Then...that means" Tai nervously started to say.  
  
"No, not any of Devimon's solders either." Izzy interrupted "If it were, there would be a change on the danger gauge by now. So far, it's at pretty much the same level it's always been."  
  
"Then, who could it be?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Awww, you can't have forgotten me already!" a familiar voice called out from the darkness.  
  
"PALMON?" Mimi shouted in disbelief "IS THAT YOU?"  
  
"It sure is!" Palmon cried, her short, running outline slowly becoming visible before her "Are you all right?"  
  
"I am now!" Mimi wept, scooping the little, leafy Digimon up in her arms "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"  
  
"T.K.!" Patamon shouted, flying at T.K. who had somehow managed to remain perched on Mimi's shoulders when she leaned over to grab Palmon.  
  
"Hey Patamon!" T.K. laughed, hugging the furry little Digimon "Where ya been?"  
  
"We've been looking all over for you!" Patamon said "Did ya miss us?"  
  
"You bet we did! Right Mimi?" T.K. said, looking to the girl under him.  
  
"This is the happiest moment of my life, Palmon!" Mimi bawled, her tears splashing all over the Digimon.  
  
"I know, I don't think I've ever been as happy as I am right now!" Palmon sobbed, crying even more than Mimi.  
  
"I'm just so...so HAPPY!" Mimi cried again, choking for a moment on an extra large wad of tears.  
  
"Happy happy happy!" Palmon continued between sniffs and sobs.  
  
"Okay...That's just kinda weird." T.K. muttered, watching the strange spectacle.  
  
"Kinda really weird." Patamon agreed.  
  
"TAI!" Agumon shouted, running up to his partner "How about you? Are you okay?"  
  
"Sure I am!" Tai laughed "Don't take it personally if I don't hug you, though, my hands are a little full."  
  
"Hey, don't look now, Tai, but you've got something growing on your back!" Gomamon snickered, pointing at Izzy.  
  
"Oh my heavens! IZZY!" Tentomon shouted, flying over to Izzy and frantically looking him over "What's the matter? Are you injured? If you've been wounded in my absence, I'll never forgive myself!"  
  
"It's nothing to worry yourself over," Izzy assured him "Just a slight twist of the ankle."  
  
"Really?" Centarumon said, walking over "Let me have a look at that."  
  
"Oh, hey! Now you can carry Izzy!" Tai suggested.  
  
"I think Izzy would prefer it if no one has to carry him." Centarumon said, placing his hand over the sore ankle "Healing Touch."  
  
"Um, I don't really...Hey, wait a minute!" Izzy stuttered, gingerly touching his suddenly fine leg "That's...I mean...WOW!"  
  
"What? " Tai asked "Is it better?"  
  
"Completely!" Izzy said, quite amazed.  
  
"Well, in that case, this is where you get off!" Tai declared, unceremoniously dropping Izzy onto the floor.  
  
"Hey, I just got finished putting him back together!" Centarumon scolded "Don't break him already!"  
  
"Whoa...That was pretty cool!" Patamon said.  
  
"I'll say." Unimon said "Since when do you know how to do that?"  
  
"Since I taught myself how in the bowels of that factory." Centarumon answered "That Black Gear didn't drive me completely insane, after all, I had to pass the time somehow."  
  
"So, where's Matt?" Gabumon asked, looking around.  
  
"Sorry," Tai answered "Matt, Sora, and Joe are off that way."  
  
"Dang it!" Gomamon whined "Looks like I owe you dinner, Tentomon."  
  
"That you do." Tentomon laughed triumphantly "You see, Unimon could tell that you had been divided into two groups, but he wasn't sure who was where, so we had a little bet going."  
  
"Why exactly are you split up, anyway?" Unimon asked "That's not a very good idea, given your current situation."  
  
"Well, it sure wasn't our idea." Tai said "It was pretty much Pandoramon's fault."  
  
"Oh really." Centarumon muttered, suspiciously "How so?"  
  
"Don't listen to Tai, it was HIS fault!" Mimi objected "We ran into this big ugly dragon thinggie and ran away and I was following Tai but Tai ran the wrong way and got us lost!"  
  
"I did NOT go the wrong way!" Tai countered "Everybody else went the wrong way! If we'd gone the wrong way, we wouldn't have caught up with Izzy and T.K. first!"  
  
"So you two have actually seen Pandoramon?" Centarumon asked.  
  
"Yeah...Hey, wait minute. How do you know who we're talking about?" Tai asked.  
  
"Oh, she's quite famous around here." Unimon said "What do you think of her?"  
  
"Huh? What do you mean?" Mimi asked.  
  
"Is she trustworthy?" Centarumon demanded.  
  
"Oh sure." Mimi said "I mean, she's totally nuts, but she's basically harmless. Why?"  
  
"It's not worth going into now." Unimon replied "Let's just hurry up and find the others."  
  
"The sooner the better." Centarumon grunted "Who knows what fiendish scheme that Digimon could be acting out as we speak?"  
  
"What's it like in your dimensional plane, Matt?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Huh?" Matt muttered "What's that?"  
  
"I think she means Earth." Sora said.  
  
"Oh, is that what you call it?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Well, I don't know" Matt said, trying to think of something intelligent to say "Well, I mean I do, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to explain it to you. In some ways, it's not that different from this place, but it's also really different."  
  
"So...They don't have any Digimon there?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Nope." Matt answered "There are a bunch of different kinds of animals that kind of look like Digimon, but none of them can talk or throw fireballs or do any of the stuff you guys do."  
  
"Well, what do they do?" she asked.  
  
"Eat, mostly." Matt said, with a slight grin "That or be eaten by something else."  
  
"What about humans?" Pandoramon continued "Is that what they- um, I mean you do to?"  
  
"Well, we don't eat each other, I'll have you know." Matt laughed "Not most of the time, at least. Actually, humans are lot like Digimon...Aside from the throwing fireballs and Digivolving and stuff."  
  
"Nothing digivolves?" Pandoramon asked, fascinated "But...How do you change from one form to another?"  
  
"We don't." Matt explained "I mean, we grow bigger as we get older, but we don't have any big transformation like that. The form we start with is pretty much the one we're stuck with."  
  
"Wow...That must...I can't imagine what that must be like." Pandoramon muttered "Stuck in one shape for your whole life"  
  
"Well, it's pretty hard for us to imagine turning into something totally different that we used to be." Sora pointed out.  
  
"So, tell me more." Pandoramon asked, ignoring Sora "What does...Um...Earth, right? What does it look like."  
  
"Like I said, it's kind of like this place, but kind of not." Matt said, trying to come up with some points of reference "I mean, there are trees and grass and stuff like hear, though the look a lot different. Oh, and cities, do you have any cities around here?"  
  
"You mean big ones?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Yeah, we've seen the Biyomon village and stuff like that, but I mean big cities."  
  
"Not on File Island." Pandoramon answered "I've heard about a few on Server, but the closest thing we have to that here is System Canyon."  
  
"That's what I figured." Matt sighed "Never mind then."  
  
"There's also a little matter of the sky, in case you forgot." Joe pointed out.  
  
"Oh yeah!" Matt piped up "It's nothing like the stuff that's going on upstairs around here."  
  
"Huh?" Pandoramon said, startled "You don't have a sky?"  
  
"Sure we do!" Matt answered "It's a lot different than this one, though. There's no mess of colors swirling around all the time or anything, it's just blue."  
  
"Nothing but blue?" Pandoramon laughed, as if Matt had said the whole sky was made out of old socks or something like that "All the time?"  
  
"Well, it's not always blue, but most of it..." Matt tried to explain "Well...There's this big thing call the sun that's a long way out from the Earth, that's where we get our light from."  
  
"Huh?" Pandoramon asked "We get our light from the sky."  
  
"Well, so do we...Sort of." Matt muttered, realizing that he'd never make it as a school teacher "See, the Sun is this one really bright glowing ball in the sky, that lights up everything else and when it's out the sky looks blue. Get it?"  
  
"Not really" Pandoramon confessed "But go on anyway."  
  
"Well, um, the Earth kind of...Well, it turns and stops pointing towards the sun, that's when night happens."  
  
"Oh, we've got night here too!" Pandoramon exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah, but it's a lot different." Matt interrupted "Here all the swirlly stuff is still there, but there's none of that stuff in our world, remember? When we have night, the sky just goes black."  
  
"ALL black?" Pandoramon asked "How do you see anything?"  
  
"Well, there's the moon." Matt said, glad that Pandoramon had asked, because he'd have totally forgotten about it otherwise "It kind of looks like the sun, but it's different. It's this big white ball that's closer to the Earth, but isn't very bright and sometimes you can't see it at all. And there's also the stars."  
  
"The what?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"They're more things like the sun, but so far away that our Sun outshines them during the day. At night, though, you can see hundreds of them: tiny little white dots shinning in the middle of all the black night."  
  
"Wow" Pandoramon mussed "We have legends about things like that here, but... I never imagined that any of them actually existed someplace"  
  
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we'd have never believed that this place existed if we hadn't been thrown right in the middle of it." Matt pointed out.  
  
"Do you think I might ever see it?" Pandoramon asked.  
  
"Huh? What-?" Matt asked, startled "You mean go to Earth?"  
  
"Maybe, I'm not sure." Pandoramon said, looking like she was trying to recall something "Maybe I just mean seeing it from here, I'm not sure. I really don't understand it, but...I think we will see your world...but not the sky."  
  
"Well, they kind of go together." Joe said.  
  
"I know, I don't understand it" Pandoramon said, hitting her head slightly "I saw all these things in The Darkness, but It didn't explain any of it, and I don't know how I'm supposed to figure out things that I haven't seen...or is it haven't happened? It was so hard to tell which was which."  
  
"Well, we'll worry about that latter." Matt said "I think that not getting killed by Devimon is probably a little more important at the moment."  
  
"Maybe" Pandoramon said with a smile, resting her head on Matt's shoulder "I'd love for you to show me your sky"  
  
"Eer...Why are we talking about this, anyway? We've got more important things to do!" Matt gruffly asked, trying to hold back a blush. In a few hours, they would be face to face with a few thousand Digimon waiting for a chance to kill them, and there they were talking about the dumb sky. But the truth was, Matt really didn't mind. In fact, he was actually enjoying talking to Pandoramon, and Matt didn't enjoy talking to anything. Why was Pandoramon any different? Maybe it was the slightly innocent honesty about her. She didn't always make since, in fact she usually didn't, but she never seemed to say anything that she didn't mean. There just didn't seem to be any hidden agendas with Pandoramon, and that was one of the things Matt hated the most about talking to people. Maybe that was why it was getting easier not to be annoyed by her chatter.  
  
Of course, it didn't hurt that she had such a pretty voice, either  
  
"WHOA! Where'd they come from?" Pandoramon suddenly shouted, nearly dragging Matt to the ground as she whirled around to look behind her "They're back!"  
  
"Huh? Who's back?" Joe shouted "Where?"  
  
"Is it Leomon again?" Matt demanded.  
  
"I...I don't know." Pandoramon said, beginning to look very frightened "I don't think...Wait that can't be...OH NO!!! THEY'RE ALL AROUND US!!!"  
  
"WHAT?" the three children shouted in unison.  
  
"There are three, no five of them behind us" Pandoramon whispered, her entire body starting to tremble "And just as many in front of us, too."  
  
"On this level?" Sora asked "Where did they come from?"  
  
"I-I don't know" Pandoramon whimpered, looking at the floor in shame "I...I wasn't paying attention"  
  
"YOU WHAT?" Matt shouted, whatever affection which might have been there a moment ago now buried under a wave of rage.  
  
"I'm sorry! I forgot all about it!" Pandoramon wept, clearly disgusted with herself.  
  
"How could you have forgotten to look for those things?" Matt demanded, shaking Pandoramon violently "What do you think we're keeping you around for, anyway?"  
  
"I didn't mean to!" Pandoramon pleaded, trying to convince herself more than Matt "I just...I couldn't"  
  
"Never mind that now!" Sora interrupted "Right now we just need to find a way out-"  
  
"There isn't a way out!" Pandoramon wept "There's only one exit for this hall, and that's where they're waiting!"  
  
"Only one...Well what did you lead us in here for?" Matt yelled "Didn't it ever occur to you that we might need to get out of here really quick?"  
  
"I wasn't thinking about it" Pandoramon sobbed "I'm sorry, it was stupid-"  
  
"You can say that again!" Matt said, exasperated "Why didn't you just hand us to Devimon on a platter?"  
  
"MATT, STOP IT!" Sora shouted, giving Matt a hard slap in the face "That's not going to help us now!"  
  
"Nothing's going to help us now," Matt shot back "thanks to out stellar guide here!"  
  
"It's not her fault-" Sora started to protest.  
  
"YES IT IS!" Pandoramon interrupted, pulling herself away from Matt's grip and staggering back from the humans "It's all my fault! EVERYTHING'S my fault! Even when I try to help I make things worse!"  
  
"Hey, wait a minute!" Joe asked, nervously "Where are you going?" if Pandoramon even hear him, she gave no indication of it. Instead she simply charged down the hallway sobbing.  
  
"Pandoramon! Come back! We're not mad at you!" Sora pleaded, starting to run after her before turning back to Joe and Matt "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME ON!"  
  
"I know, I know!" Matt shouted, running past Sora.  
  
"Wow, for someone who can't walk on her own, she sure runs fast!" Joe commented, trying to keep up.  
  
"Hey, Pandoramon!" Matt shouted "I didn't mean that stuff, all right? You're a good guide!"  
  
But Pandoramon refused to listen, she was too busy cursing herself for her own stupidity. How could she have been so stupid? How could anyone miss so many Black Gears for so long? That was the only thing she was good for to anyone and she couldn't even do that! And why not? Because she was being a little idiot, yaking with a Digidestined like a friend, of all things! What business did she have even being around someone like that? She was nothing but a pathetic joke who'd handed the entire Digital World over to pure destruction; the Digidestined were supposed to get rid of Digimon like her, not run around with her! How could she have been stupid enough to believe that she could ever have anything in common with someone like Matt? She didn't belong anywhere near him; she didn't belong anywhere anymore.  
  
There was no way that Pandoramon could have known it, but Matt was cursing himself just as much as she was as he tried to catch up. He had really screwed things up this time. How could he have been so stupid? Pandoramon was their only chance at getting around Devimon's goons, and he'd shot his mouth of like a maniac and scared her away! There was no way they were going to convince her to keep helping them now, at least, there should have been. Matt knew he wouldn't forgive a jerk like him, even Pandoramon did, and seeing that she wasn't answering their shouting, he didn't think she would. For what little good it would do, at least they were catching up with her.  
  
Then, without warning, she stoped.  
  
"All right!" Sora said, relieved "I think she's finally listening to us!"  
  
"Stop right there!" Pandoramon commanded "Don't come any closer!"  
  
"Well, so much for that." Matt sighed.  
  
"Come on, Pandoramon!" Sora pleaded "We're not mad at you! I promise!"  
  
"I'm not talking about that! Just hold still!" Pandoramon said, holding her staff out in front of her "And you'd probably better close your eyes this time." Before any of the humans had a chance to ask what she was doing, the entire hall had been swallowed up in a blinding, but familiar, flash of light. When their eyes had adjusted, they found themselves once again surrounded by a glowing barrier. On the outside, only a matter of feet away from Pandoramon, they could see a pack of Devidramon starring hungrily at them, but not daring to touch the barrier.  
  
"Hey, yeah!" Joe happily exclaimed "I forgot you could do that!"  
  
"There, see?" Sora shouted, happily "You really are a lot of help!"  
  
"Well, if you say so" Pandoramon replied "Maybe just a little. Sorry about that back there."  
  
"YOU'RE sorry?" Matt laughed "I'M the one who yelled at you."  
  
"Awwww, isn't that sweet." a grotesque voice laughed from behind the Devidramon "Did you and your friends have a little fight?"  
  
"W-W-WHAT?" Pandoramon stuttered, suddenly looking very afraid "No, that can't be-"  
  
"What, me?" asked a disgusting, scab covered Digimon with a giant club as it squeezed between two of the Devidramon "You think little old me can come down here and do a good job where Leomon screwed up?"  
  
"Ogermon" Pandoramon replied, nervously "Don't come any closer!"  
  
"Hey, you sound a little scared over there." Ogermon snickered, poking the barrier with his claw "What's the matter? Don't trust you fancy shmancy barrier deal?"  
  
"Please, Ogermon," Pandoramon pleaded "don't do this!"  
  
"Do what? THIS?" Ogermon asked, effortlessly stepping through the barrier as if it wasn't even there.  
  
"Wha- But- How- What's going on?" Sora stammered.  
  
"We are dead." Joe whimpered "We are so so so dead!"  
  
"Hey, how did I do that? OH YEAH! It'd because that dumb excuse for a barrier will only stop Black Gears! It's worthless against a real Digimon like me!" Ogermon laughed, striking Pandoramon in the head with his club and knocking her to the ground. As so as she let go of her staff, the barrier vanished and the pack of Devidramon charged ahead to surround the two Digimon.  
  
"Devimon's really ticked off with you, angel girl!" Ogermon said, tossing the struggling Digimon over his shoulder "Even I don't want to think about what he's got in store for you, and that's really something!"  
  
"MATT!" Pandoramon screamed, frantically beating at Ogermon's shoulder "HELP ME!!!"  
  
"HEY!" Matt demanded, trying to look past the row of Devidramon in front of him "Let her go, you overgrown scab!"  
  
"Oh, shut up kid!" Ogermon replied, annoyed "You're not my problem, she is."  
  
"Well, I just became your problem!" Matt shouted back "You're not taking Pandoramon anywhere!"  
  
"Uh huh, yeah, that's great, Bub." Ogermon laughed, walking away "Come and get her, if you're so hot." At that, Matt tried to charge through the space between two of the Devidramon. Before he was even close, however, one of them whipped out and struck him in the face, promptly knocking him to the floor.  
  
"Matt, no!" Sora yelped, running to help him up "Are you alright?"  
  
"You know what?" Ogermon called from somewhere in the darkness beyond them "I should probably do Devimon a favor and get rid of you three while I'm down here."  
  
"NO!" Pandoramon screamed "Leave them alone!"  
  
"Hey, shut up!" Ogermon growled, apparently striking his captive "SIC `EM, BOYS!" As soon as those words left Ogermon's mouth, the Devidramon formed a circle around the three humans, glaring at them hungrily.  
  
"Oh no oh no oh no oh no!" Joe stammered "What do we do?"  
  
"I don't know" Matt confessed, cradling his busted lip. Suddenly, unleashing an ear -piercing screech, one of the Devidramon behind Sora reared up to strike, and the three children braced themselves to be torn to bits. Before the attack had a chance to come, however, the hallway was lit up by a burning orange flash and the Devidramon vanished. The would-be victims would have looked to see what caused the sudden blast, but another of the Devidramon took the moment of surprise to leap headfirst at Matt. Before it had a chance to get all the way off hid legs, a small, blue blast of energy flew over their heads and struck it square in the face. The attack didn't seem to actually hurt the creature, but it startled it enough to bring it to a stop directly in front of its intended victim.  
  
"Whew! that was close!" a familiar, horned form draped in fur sighed behind Matt.  
  
"Gabumon?" Matt muttered, not entirely sure what had happened.  
  
"Yep!" Gabumon laughed "And I brought a few friends with me!"  
  
"SORA!" Biyomon shouted, leaping at her partner and wrapping her wings around her neck "Thank goodness we got here in time! I was so worried about you!"  
  
"I'll say, I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?" Gomamon asked, giving Joe a hearty slap on the back "I turn my back and look at you: surrounded by Devidramon!"  
  
"Well, I think we can put a stop to that without too much trouble." Centarumon called out, picking out which one he would destroy next. The Devidramon must have realized what he was up to, because they quickly backed away from the humans and formed a line facing them.  
  
"Um...What are they doing?" Joe asked, confused.  
  
"They're shaking in their boots, that's what they're doing!" Tai declared from behind Centarumon "If you were face to face with the mighty Digidestined, you'd be scared too!"  
  
"Then why are the mighty Digidestined hiding behind their hoofed babysitters?" Matt asked.  
  
"You'll have time to fight with each other later!" Gabumon interrupted, pointing at the Devidramon "Don't you think we'd better fight them first?"  
  
"I totally concur." Matt answered, brandishing his Digivice "Let's see if we remember how to do this."  
  
"Sounds good to me, though you'd probably better stand back." Gabumon said "There's not a whole lot of room in here, after all."  
  
"Sure thing!" Matt said, taking several steps back and activating the Digivice "DO IT GABUMON!"  
  
"Gabumon digivolve to... GARURUMON!" the Digimon shouted, vanishing behind a cloak of blue light and emerging a giant wolf who took up nearly half the wall. "All right, who wants to die first?"  
  
"All right!" T.K. cheered from his perch on Unimon's back "Go get `em Garurumon!"  
  
"Hey, we're not gonna let those two get all the glory, are we?" Tai asked Agumon.  
  
"I'd be just fine with that, actually." Agumon answered "But I bet you're not."  
  
"Smart Digimon." Tai said, pulling his Digivice out of his pocket and giving his partner a gently but firm shove towards the action "Time to digivolve!"  
  
"Agumon digivolve to...GREYMON- OW!" he shouted, transforming into a large, orange dinosaur, and promptly hitting his horned head on the suddenly close ceiling "Man, it got small in here fast!"  
  
"Are any of you going to go help?" Unimon asked the other Digimon.  
  
"Where?" Palmon asked "There's barely room for the two of them."  
  
"Besides, I believe they can handle themselves." Tentomon said.  
  
"Yeah, and we, uh, need to save our strength for Devimon, right?" Gomamon added.  
  
"But we need to rescue Pandoramon!" Sora protested "Some thing called Ogermon took her!"  
  
"TOOK her?" Unimon asked "Just now?"  
  
"Yeah!" Joe explained "She was trying to hold off those whatever-you-called- them, but Ogermon beat her up and took her!"  
  
"I see" Unimon muttered "Well, I guess that settles the question of who's side she was on."  
  
"Maybe." Centarumon, with a hint of regret "It's really a moot point now."  
  
Pandoramon had long since given up struggling against Ogermon, not so much because she knew it was useless but because she was simply to terrified to move any more. Her life was over, there was no question about it. She wasn't sure just what the outcome of the Digidestined's battle with Devimon would be, she wasn't sure of a great many things, but she was absolutely certain that she was about to die. Pandoramon couldn't help but be amazed at how ingeniously cruel her fate had become. There was still so much knowledge floating around in her head that the had no way of even comprehending, even her own life was a nearly incomprehensible blur, but the knowledge that it was all about to end shone through the tattered mess of her consciousness like a beacon. She would never see her old home in the world outside Infinity Mountain again. She would never have a chance to repair all the damage she had wrought on the Digiworld. She would never see Matt again. It just wasn't fair!  
  
Of course, as clear as the knowledge of her fate might have been, the means were a complete mystery. Devimon had a multitude of ways to punish traitors and they all were carefully planned to keep their victims alive for as possible, even if that life did not extend farther than the perception of pain. For years Pandoramon had known about every one of Devimon's forms of torture but never had to think about them; now they were all she could think about. Her wings would probably be the first to go, or maybe her fingers. No, first he'd gouge out her eyes so she wouldn't know where he was going to cut next. Then, slowly, he'd tear her apart from the inside out. The more she imagined it, the more the quaking little Digimon's frame stung with absolute terror.  
  
The irony was sickening. Here was a Digimon that only a few days ago Pandoramon would have gladly given up her life for, and now she was horrified of him demanding just that. Well, no; that wasn't quite right. It wasn't just Devimon that she was afraid of, but that...that thing that was behind him. The pure malevolence her mind had touched through the transmitter was what she feared most of all. The thought of being anywhere near anything that had ever been touched by such an unspeakable disease of a being was more repulsive that Pandoramon had ever thought possible, nearly as strong as the primal fear of her own demise. What if Devimon didn't kill her at all? It wasn't totally implausible; he might decide to keep her around to mind the transmitter, at least until he had conquered Server and had access to the rift directly. But there was no chance that he would let her escape unharmed; even then he would probably fit her with a Black Gear. She would have the very essence of The Darkness invading her body, her mind. All but the faintest traces of her individuality would be blanketed of existence underneath the will of that...thing...Even if she did live, she would be in a state even worse than death, horrible as that may have been.  
  
As the giant, imposing doors to Devimon's lair slowly creaked open, Pandoramon felt more lost than any being should have been capable of feeling. There was absolutely no hope whatsoever now. All was lost.  
  
"Well, I did it!" Ogermon declared, dropping Pandoramon to the floor "Here's Pandoramon for ya!"  
  
Looking up from the floor, Pandoramon saw Devimon's tall, impossibly thing frame standing at the far end of the room with his back to her, staring into the fire. For a minute that felt like a thousand eternities there was no sound in the bleak catacomb. Pandoramon knew that there was nothing she could possibly say that would sway Devimon from whatever he had already decided, even if wasn't terrified far beyond the capacity of speech. As for Devimon, he simply stood with his back to the fallen Digimon in deadly silence.  
  
"Uh...Sh-should I leave?" Ogermon asked, afraid he was doing something he shouldn't.  
  
"No." Devimon finally muttered.  
  
"Oh" Ogermon stuttered "I mean...Well, I just thought that-"  
  
"There is nothing here I am ashamed of." Devimon said, finally turning to look at Pandoramon, his eyes burning with the range of betrayal "Nothing other than the traitor at our feet."  
  
"Oh boy, here it comes." Ogermon whispered, licking his lips with his massive tongue.  
  
"Out of all the Digimon under my command, I gave you unparalleled freedom." Devimon hissed at Pandoramon, who was curled up on the floor like a wounded animal "I actually trusted you! Now you have blatantly defiled that trust. Why?"  
  
Pandoramon tried to answer him, to tell him that he was being deceived, that The Darkness had no intention of giving him anything other than death along with the rest of the Digital World, but she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she simply couldn't make words appear in her mind, much less her mouth. Instead, she simply trembled in painful silence.  
  
"ANSWER ME!!!" Devimon howled, erupting in an explosion of rage. He grabbed Pandoramon and pulled her from the floor, tearing both her clothes and her delicate skin with his claws as he did so "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?" The only response Pandoramon could give was a shriek of pain as the claws slid through her skin, so Devimon threw her back to the ground.  
  
"At the moment, I don't have time to deal with you in the way you deserve." Devimon said, unsteadily, as he tried to regain his composure "Lock her in a cell until the Digidestined are taken care of. I'll see to Pandoramon then."  
  
"Uh... Sure" Ogermon muttered, almost as afraid for his life as Pandoramon.  
  
"And don't come back!" Tai shouted at the remaining Devidramon as they ran down the hall.  
  
"You just be glad I kept bumping my head," Greymon added "otherwise I would have really let you have it!"  
  
"Okay, come on!" Matt commanded, running down the hall.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?" Centarumon asked.  
  
"Ogermon took Pandoramon this way!" Matt explained "Maybe we can still catch up with him!"  
  
"I hate to disappoint you, but Ogermon can move through this maze a lot faster than you." Centarumon replied "He's long since dropped Pandoramon off at where she's going."  
  
"Well then, that's where we're going!" Matt insisted "Come on!"  
  
"Are you joking?" Centarumon laughed "The whole top of this mountain is crawling with Digimon, especially the parts that are there to keep people from breaking through! You'd never get close!"  
  
"Well then, what the heck did come up here for?" Matt asked, getting frustrated.  
  
"To get Devimon, that's what." Centarumon answered "And the only way you'll live to do that is if you head straight for Devimon and don't waste time looking for anything else!"  
  
"But...We can't just leave her!" Matt protested, aghast.  
  
"You can and you will." Centarumon insisted.  
  
"Look, Devimon's not going to do anything to Pandoramon as long as he knows you're still here." Unimon explained "He takes punishment very seriously and devotes a lot of time to it. As long as he knows the Digidestined are at his doorstep, he's not going to get caught up in anything else."  
  
"Now, come on!" Centarumon insisted "We've figured out a way to get as close as possible to Devimon without having to fight through anything."  
  
"Please Matt!" Sora pleaded "The only way we can help Pandoramon now is to get rid of Devimon before he can do anything to her!"  
  
"But...What if" Matt stammered "What if we can't?"  
  
"We will." Garurumon assured him "We'll defeat Devimon and get your friend back."  
  
"But...Alright, fine." Matt sighed "Sorry, Pandoramon"  
  
To Be Continued... 


End file.
